Mass Effect: ODST
by Helljumper 1337
Summary: A hero need not speak. When he is gone, the world will speak for him.  Follow Rookie the young helljumper as he attempts to piece together to how did he ended on this messed up place...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**: This is my first fanfic, so please constructive reviews, k?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 1 - ****Reveille**

"Hey, wake up!" a voice said.

"Well, He doesn't has any physical injuries and his vital signs are normal Commander", another voice said.

The Soldier stirred. He slowly opened his eyes and saw three people bent over, looking at him two women and a man.

"You okay?" A woman in black armor said offering a hand to him. Rookie took her hand and stood up feeling dizziness over his head, he slowly stood up looking at the three people who woke him up and then to his surroundings...Red sky, rocky landscape, a few buildings in the distance...there is an eerie silence in this place.

'What the hell?' the Soldier thought, 'How did I end up here?'

"Do you know him Williams?" the man asked to a white armored woman.

The white armored woman shook her head and said, "No, I don't recognize him...and I don't remember anyone wearing that kind of armor in my squad".

"Who are you?", asked the woman who helped him up.

"Lance Corporal J**** D**** ODST"

"I am Commander Shepard, this is Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery chief Ashley Williams", the black armored woman introduced him to the two others, "Where is the rest of your squad?"

"I don't think they're here", he replied.

"...Wait, what's an OD-"

"Take cover!" he interrupted as he saw five humanoid machine like beings pointing what looked like Rifles at their direction from a distance. Everyone dived to their nearest cover and the he prepared to fire upon the Androids when he realized he didn't had any weapons.

"Hey! I need a gun!" he shouted over the gunshots. Williams nodded and handed what looked like a pistol to him. He didn't waste any time studying the gun as he began firing rapidly towards the new hostiles, he managed to drop two of the…..Robots with energy shields, while the other three took care of the rest.

When the firefight was over, the commander walked up to him, "Damn Corporal! Perfect headshots from fifty meters with a pistol?"

He shrugged and looked at his pistol, his HUD read 'Overheated'.

'_Overheated? What does that mean? Is this covenant tech? But I don't see any ammo count on my HUD, just a bar that fills up and empties as I fire the gun_'

He realized he was staring at the pistol for too long.

"I think he's traumatized Commander", Lieutenant said. "Do you know where you are? And do you remember what happened to you before you were knocked unconscious?"

He shook his head.

"You are on a colony in Eden Prime and we rescued you when we saw you being carried towards one of those spikes to be impaled like rest of them by those two", the Lieutenant pointed at two dead Robots.

"What are those?" Commander Shepard asked.

"I think they're the geth", Chief Williams replied.

"The geth haven't been seen outside the Persius veil in three hundred years, what are they doing here now?" Lt. Alenko asked.

"I think they're here for the beacon", Williams replied.

"Then we can talk along the way, Right now we need to get to the beacon before the geth take it away, how are you holding up? Can you handle yourself?" Commander Shepard asked him.

The Corporal nodded.

"And Corporal? No offence, but your name is kind of hard to pronounce. Got a Nickname?" The Commander asked.

"Rookie"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

They arrived to what looked like an architectural dig site when they spotted three geth troopers. The commander ordered to stop and nodded to Lt. Alenko who nodded back. They stood up, suddenly surrounded by a bright blue aura and made an upward action with their hands. Rookie looked at the two geth wide eyed as both of them were launched in the air also surrounded by a blue aura.

'Either this is a really messed up dream or I've gone insane', Rookie thought.

"Rookie! What are you doing? Get down!" he heard Chief Williams shout.

But before he could react he felt his shoulder and arm burn as he realized he was shot and quickly dived for the nearest cover.

'Ugh! Definitely not a dream!' He thought as he sat there clutching his shoulders, he saw rest of his team gun down the remaining geth.

Chief Williams ran up to him to investigate his wounds. She stared wide eyed at Rookie as Commander Shepard walked up behind her.

"Something wrong Williams?" asked the Commander as Williams applied medi gel to Rookie's wounds.

"That geth fired a burst at him and only two shots made it through his armor….and he does not has a Kinetic barrier on him", Williams replied. At this Commander Shepard bent on him to examine him.

"You don't have a Kinetic barrier generator? Are you asking to get killed?" The Commander asked incredulously.

"Turn around, I have a spare kinetic barrier generator, and I'll install it to your suit", Williams said.

Rookie did as he was told, in about twenty seconds it was done.

"Alright, step back"

He did as he was told and-

BANG!

Williams fired a shot at him with a pistol, Rookie visibly flinched but realized that the round has bounced off some kind of barrier.

"Not really strong but it'll do for now", Williams stated.

'Huh, so a kinetic barrier is some kind of overshield, like the ones those Spartans use', Rookie thought. He started integrating it with his HUD and smiled as a blue bar appeared on it.

Shepard nodded and said, "Patch your radio to this frequency". Rookie looked as some kind of orange holographic interface activated on Shepard's hands, she tinkered her fingers on and looked up, "You don't have an omni tool do you?"

Rookie shook his head, not even bothering to ask what an omni tool was.

Shepard sighed and said,"Do you at least have a radio on that helmet?"

Rookie nodded and she held her omni tool closer to his helmet, Rookie watched in shock as his radio's frequency auto adjusted.

"Done", Shepard said

He nodded to Williams and they moved out. As they arrived at the dig site, Chief Williams ran up and examined the area.

"This is the dig site, the beacon was right here, it must have been moved", Williams said.

"By whom? Our side or the geth?" Lt. Alenko asked.

"Hard to say, maybe we should check out the research camp, it's just up ahead past the ramps", Williams replied.

"You think anyone survived the attacks?" Shepard asked.

"I dunno, maybe we should go and check it out", Williams replied.

The com crackled, "Shepard, this place got hit hard, lot of dead bodies, I'm going to investigate a spaceport up ahead meet you there"

Rookie looked at Shepard. Knowing what he meant she explained "That's Nihlus, a turian spectre, he's with us"

He hadn't understood a single word of what the 'Turian' had said over the comm.

'_First the Elites, now a Turian?, Some kind of new alien?, With us?, Heh, I'm definitely going to go insane_'

Shepard took point. The rest of them followed her up the ramps and they arrived at the camp.

"This place got hit hard", stated Williams.

"This is a good place for an ambush, keep your guard up", warned Alenko.

The Rookie scanned the area when he heard a metal screeching sound…and saw the corpses stand up on their own from the metal spikes.

"Oh god! They're still alive!" exclaimed Alenko.

"What did the geth do to them?" asked Williams.

Three husks started charging towards them, two were quickly gunned down but the third one managed to get close enough to rookie and sent out an electric charge, then prepared to punch him, but the Rookie was faster. He kicked the husk in the guts then fired at point blank range. He went for a closer examination of the corpse. It looked as if the organs have been replaced by synthetic machinery.

"Now we know what are those things for, turning our own dead against us", Alenko commented.

'That could have been me', he thought. 'That thing messed up my VISR!' Rookie thought and rebooted his VISR to find his mission video recorder busted.

"You okay?" asked Shepard.

He sighed and nodded to Shepard who took point again.

A single gunshot went somewhere in the distance.

"That sounded ominous", said Williams.

They took a route across the research camp when they came across an opening which Williams told that led to the spaceport.

"What is that? Off in the distance", said Alenko pointing.

"It's a ship! Look at the size of it!" exclaimed Williams.

Even the Rookie was surprised, it wasn't the biggest ship that he'd seen…but big enough that it shouldn't be _that_ close to the ground…or hovering vertically like that.

The four soldiers saw as the giant squid like ship took off the ground and disappeared into the thick clouds. More metal screeches shook him out of his distraction as he saw more husks running at their direction and two geth troopers at a distance. He wasted no time and did short work of the husks with precision shots as the other three took out the two geth troopers. They went further towards the docks they came across a dead alien.

"Commander, it's Nihlus", said Alenko.

Rookie went closer for a better look. The new…dead alien's face had avian features, complete with some facial markings and was at least seven feet in height, it had a hole on the back on its head.

"Something's moving, over behind those crates!" said Williams pointing at some crates.

Everyone pointed their guns at its general direction.

"Wait! Don't-don't shoot! I'm one of you, I'm human!", said a man panicking as he came out of his hiding.

"Sneaking up on us like that nearly got you killed", said Shepard coolly.

"I…I hid from those creatures", said the man. "My name is Powell, I saw what happened to the turian, the other one shot him".

"I need to know how Nihlus died", said Shepard.

"The other one got here first, he was waiting when your friend showed up. He called him Saren, I think they knew each other.", said Powell. "Your friend seemed to relax, he let his guard down…and Saren killed him, shot him right in the back. I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates".

"We were told that the Prothean beacon was brought here on the spaceport", said Shepard.

"It must be on the other platform, where Saren was headed", replied Powell. "I knew the beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. First that damn mother ship showed up, then the attack and then this weird guy appeared out of nowhere".

"What guy?" asked Williams.

"He wore black armor and-", Powell looked wide eyed behind Shepard, "-It's HIM! The one bent over by the turian!"

Rookie just finished taking pictures of the dead turian when he realized everyone was looking at him.

"…So he just appeared out of nowhere, that's it?" asked Shepard.

"Yeah, Saren looked very interested and ordered his geth to 'store' him somewhere else", said Powell pointing at Rookie. "This is all crazy! I gotta get the hell outta here!" saying this, Powell ran away.

"You'll explain everything to me once we're done here", Commander said, "For now, we have to get to the beacon quickly, let's move out"

Shepard took point as rookie and the others followed her down the ramp to see the train station filled with geth. Rookie ran for the nearest cover and took potshots at the nearest geth trooper. When suddenly he saw a giant geth fire what looked like red hot carnage from his shotgun, the shot impacted his shield and threw him backwards. His HUD showed his shields empty.

'That's a life saver', he thought. He saw the giant geth charge towards Chief Williams. He fired his pistol at it, to the point of overheating, it didn't even take out its shields.

'This is gonna hurt', he thought as he took out his combat knife and charged towards the incoming geth. He tackled it to the ground before it reached Chief Williams. He dodged its first swing as it desperately tried to get him off itself, then it tried to ram the butt of its shotgun at his face, he blocked it with his elbow and used the other hand it to stab it in the optics. He clutched his arm as he realized he reopened his gunshot wound. Alenko walked up to him to check his wound.

Apparently, these Androids suck at CQB.

"Nice moves kid", said Alenko smiling.

"Damn…Thanks Rookie, You okay?" asked Chief Williams as she walked up to him.

Rookie nodded.

Shepard activated the train which started to move across the station. When they arrived at the last platform, they heard beeping sounds. They got off the train and came across the source of the beeping sounds – a bomb.

"Demolition charges! The geth must have planted them", said Alenko.

"Hurry - we need to find them all and shut them down!" said Williams.

Shepard nodded and said, "Rookie and Alenko, go ahead and disable the other charges I'll disable this one and regroup".

Rookie and Kaiden proceeded up the ramps towards the next demolition charge. The upper ramp was guarded by five geth troopers. Kaiden used his biotics to lift two geth from their cover, rookie took down, then kaiden pointed his omni tool at the other geth taking their shields down, rookie took them down with precision headshots. Kaiden began to disarm the nearest demo charge, Shepard and Ashley ran up ahead of them to disarm other charges, rookie proceeded to clear the last demo charge, he took out the remaining geth on the ramp.

"All clear", Rookie called on the comm.

Kaiden began to disarm the last bomb, Shepard and Ashley regrouped with them.

"All charges disabled Commander", said Kaiden as he finished disarming the bomb.

"Alright, let's get the beacon and call in the Normandy", Shepard said as she took point again.

The four soldiers proceeded towards the beacon, as they came down the ramp, they heard more metal screeches, they readied their weapons and made short work of the incoming husks.

"Beacon is secured, All clear", Ashley declared.

Rookie took a seat on one of the crates. Shepard began to call the Normandy on her comm.

"Actual working Prothean technology, unbelievable!" Kaidan exclaimed as he walked closer to the beacon.

"It didn't do anything like that when they dug it up", said Ashley and walked away.

The Prothean beacon, as those three called it was a long metal structure with green mist surrounding it. Suddenly the beacon started to pull the Lieutenant towards itself. Shepard saw this ran towards Alenko, she pulled him out of the way…and began to be pulled by the beacon herself.

Rookie started to go towards the Commander when Ashley pulled him away and said, "Don't touch her, it's too dangerous".

Rookie saw as Shepard began soaring in mid air in front of the beacon and started shaking, a moment later the beacon exploded throwing Shepard's limp body away. Rookie ran towards her to check her vitals. Her pulse was there…barely, Rookie examined and lifted her up, bridal style. He nodded to Ashley and Kaidan. He saw Kaidan frown at him.

'He's…jealous?' Rookie thought and smirked under his helmet. He walked up to them and offered Shepard's limp body to Kaidan.

Kaidan's Cheeks went red, "Oh…uh…um…You carry her", he said to Rookie who shrugged. Kaidan swore he heard Rookie and Ashley snicker under their breaths at this.

They saw The Normandy as it began to descend to their location.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A\N: **Yes, I know Rookie talked a lot in this first chapter, well he WAS kinda traumatized. This will be explained in the next chapter as soon as our Commander wakes up. Rookie will have a lot to explain to Shepard. I'll try to bring to bring him to his character ASAP i.e. the badass silent character.

And yes, Rookie's armor is superior to most, if not all the armor available in ME universe. ODST Battle armor kicks ass and most of the armor types in ME 1 look like they're made up of…well, plastic.

I haven't thought of his romance though (If he'll even have one)

Please let me know on how I can improve my writing.

Spellings, grammar and whatnot.


	2. Chapter 2

**A\N: **Thanks for all the reviews guys, I really appreciate it. Didn't think I'd get such a good response for using Rookie.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter – 2 Investigation**

Somewhere in an unknown location, in a Dreadnought, Saren sits on his acclaimed 'throne' as an Asari Matriarch walks up to him. She clears her throat to make her presence known.

"We identified the ship that touched down on the Eden Prime, The Normandy, a Human alliance ship, led by Captain Anderson", said the Asari.

"And the beacon?", asked Saren.

"One of the human may have used it", the Asari replied.

Saren suddenly went in a fit of rage, walked up to her second in command and grabbed her by her throat. "What happened to the other human we found?".

The Matriarch then remembered of the 'Human that appeared out of nowhere', as Saren told her.

"They took him too", The Matriarch replied.

Saren glared at her, "The human who used the beacon must be eliminated…and the other human, he must be found and brought to me, alive…if possible", he ordered.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard stirred.

"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think she's waking up", said Kaidan.

Shepard slowly sat up and realized she was back in the med bay of The Normandy.

"You had us worried there Shepard, How are you feeling?", asked Doctor Chakwas.

"Minor headache, nothing serious", said Shepard, "How long was I out?"

"About fifteen hours, something happened with the beacon down there I think", the Doctor replied.

"It was my fault. I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way", said Kaidan.

"You had no way of knowing what would happen", said Shepard, making a smile cross Kaidan's face.

"Actually we don't even know if that's what set off. Unfortunately we'll never get the chance to find out", said Chakwas

"The beacon exploded", Kaidan butted in, "System overload maybe, the blast knocked out cold. Rookie…had to carry you here to the ship", Kaidan replied with a slight frown, Shepard noticed but didn't say anything.

"Physically you're fine, but I detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves", said Chakwas. "I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming".

"I saw- I'm not sure what I saw. Death, destruction maybe", said Shepard.

"Hmm, I think I'll add this to my report and- oh, Captain Anderson", said Doctor Chakwas as Captain Anderson arrived into the Med bay.

"How's our XO holding up Doctor?", asked Anderson.

"All the readings are normal, I'd say the Commander is going to be fine", said Chakwas.

"Glad to hear, Commander I'd like to speak to you in private", said Anderson.

"Aye Aye Captain, I'll be in the mess if you need me", saying this Kaidan and Doctor left the Med bay.

"Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard Commander, You sure you're okay?", asked Anderson.

"Did we leave Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and Lance Corporal J**** D**** back on Eden Prime?", asked Shepard.

"I figured we could use soldiers like them on our crew, I reassigned Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams to the Normandy, but this 'Rookie'…", Anderson trailed off.

"What about him?", asked Shepard.

"I ran background check on this man", said Anderson, "Shepard, there is no record of a Lance Corporal J**** D**** in the Alliance Military Database…or even a human named J**** D****".

This made Commander Shepard's eye widen, "That's impossible…well, he did sounded suspicious especially when he mentioned himself being an 'ODST', what is it anyway?"

"I don't know, I never heard of the ODST's, maybe he's making it up. I tried to talk to him, but he says he won't say anything until you wake up", said Anderson. "Then he borrowed Lt. Alenko's Omni tool, and a Haptic Adaptive Interface glove, asked him how to use it and has been reading a Codex ever since, as if reading it for the first time…and he seems really frustrated".

"Then let's go talk to him", said Shepard getting up from her bed.

"Commander, there's something else we should discuss…Its Saren the other turian", said Anderson.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie was sitting in the mess hall looking through this 'Codex' on Lt. Alenko's 'Omni tool', using an omni tool was fairly easy. And he had also upgraded his Translator, now it could translate more languages from this world, as he had concluded, in addition to the language used by the Covenant. Since he arrived on the Normandy, he has been about studying this 'Dimension' as he believed. He was frustrated at first, but has calmed down.

'Year is 2183 instead of 2553, so I didn't travel to the future, but a different dimension. No war, no covenant…no flood', he thought to himself. 'Aliens as allies rather than trying to obliterate us and Systems Alliance rather than UNSC'. He downloaded the Codex into his Helmet's memory for later use. 'I'm SO screwed'.

Rookie winced and clutched his elbow as the pain resurfaced, the wound was reopened when he tried to block the swing from that geth and it still hurt.

He finished learning almost everything about this world.

'Okay, now with my explanation…C'mon think, think, think…that plasma grenade should've turn me into pieces…then why? How?...Damn! I hate debriefing'

He started scanning his helmet for any type of data with the omni tool.

'Only pieces of my last mission's logs, that has to do'

'Overload? Hmm…' he thought as he pressed the overload option on the omni tool. Suddenly a nearby terminal exploded, and he realized he was pointing his omni tool at it.

"Uh, oh"

"Hey, I heard something and—", Lt. Alenko said as he entered the mess hall, he saw Rookie sitting on a mess chair pointing his omni tool at a nearby terminal, and smoke being released by the said terminal.

"If you're done with playing with my omni tool, I'd like to have it back", Said Kaidan glaring at Rookie.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard finished taking with Anderson and they both decided to talk to Rookie. They stepped out of the Med Bay. Shepard decided to talk to Kaidan and Ashley while Anderson left for the debriefing room. She arrived to see Kaidan bent over a terminal, Ashley standing at a corner apparently trying to suppress laughter…and Rookie sleeping on a chair, resting his head on the table.

"What did I miss?" Shepard asked as she walked up to Ashley.

"Rookie messed up that terminal and they blame LT because it was his Omni tool", said Ashley snickering.

"Sounds like he's making friends already", Shepard said nodding to Rookie.

She chatted with both Ashley and Kaidan, and then went to wake up Rookie.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie felt someone tapping on his helmet.

"Hello, you in there?" said Shepard. "We'd like to hear your case".

Rookie got up from his chair stretching his arms and nodding to Shepard. Rookie, Kaidan, Shepard and Ashley headed towards the debriefing room where Anderson was waiting. All of them took seat except Rookie who kept standing.

"You can remove that helmet you know", said Shepard.

Rookie shook his head and said, "It's fine".

"Are you shy or something?" asked Ashley.

…

"So Rookie, care to explain why there is no record of you on the Database", said Anderson.

"Err, before I start explaining, please keep an open mind about what I'm about to say…and please, this info must not leave this room", Rookie began.

They looked at each other and nodded, "Okay, we won't tell this to anybody", said Anderson.

"I think I may have somehow jumped to this dimension from mine", said Rookie.

"Yeah, right", said Ashley, "You were right Commander, he's definitely insane".

"That…makes sense", said Shepard, earning raised eyebrows from everyone.

"You can't possibly believe him Commander, it's just ridiculous!", Kaidan said.

"Think about it, Lieutenant", began Shepard, "That dockworker on Eden Prime, said he saw Rookie appear out of nowhere, there is no record of him anywhere in the Alliance Database"

"The Commander's right, you need to have an ID on you to use a public transport, he couldn't have survived all his life without an ID, and also he does not have a fake one on him, just the one from 'his' dimension, which won't be considered as valid here", said Anderson.

"And most important of all, that dockworker also mentioned Saren being interested in him", said Shepard, "If we hadn't rescued him god knows what would Saren have done with him".

Rookie had to admire the Commander and the Captain on how quickly they came up with that, even he didn't remembered most of that, saved him most of the talking.

"Well, I still don't believe you, but do you have any evidence supporting your claim", said Kaidan.

Rookie nodded.

"What kind of evidence do you have then?", said Shepard.

"When we first encountered those husks on Eden Prime, one of them was able to electrocute me, that wiped out most of the data from my helmet's memory…but I was able to retrieve the logs of my last mission before I ended up here…but it's messed up", said Rookie.

"Wait, you record everything in your helmet?", asked Ashley.

Rookie nodded.

"Can you play it for us?", asked Anderson.

"Uh, I'll need your Omni tool, sir", said Rookie.

Kaidan sighed, "Fine but don't do what you did earlier", he said.

"What did he do earlier?" Anderson asked.

"Nothing!" everyone else replied.

Rookie took Kaidan's omni tool and downloaded the video log from his helmet. He knelt down facing towards the screen, away from everyone. He removed his helmet, scanned it with Kaidan's omni tool.

'Is he _trying_ to hide his face?', thought Ashley as she bent slightly to the left and then right, unable to see Rookie's face.

Rookie then put on his helmet. He connected the debriefing room's Holo projector with omni tool and uploaded the log. It started playing.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The video footage is all blurry and occasionally static blocks the screen.

*Static* "For fuck's sake Rookie! Don't sleep through the debriefing!", says Buck and punches rookie *Static* "Alright we're all groundside, let's regroup", says Buck from the radio *Static* this part shows rookie and the squad advancing through what appears to be some kind of ancient architecture *Static* Rookie and his squad gun down a Brute *Static* Rookie is looking inside some kind of storage tank. "Is that…a forrunner?", asks Mickey *Static* an explosion is heard somewhere, "Rookie grab that thing and let's go!", orders Buck *Static* a grunt throws a plasma grenade at Buck. "Buck! Look out!", Rookie shouts and shoulder pushes him out of the way, the plasma grenade latches itself on Rookie's chest and explodes *Static* "Hey, wake up!"—At this point the video footage stops.

'Great, stuck by a grunt', Rookie thought.

"Was that me in the end?" asked Shepard.

Rookie nodded.

"That leaves us with more questions than answers", said Anderson.

Rookie sighed, "Alright, shoot"

"That little video footage is not really convincing and it doesn't tell us how you got here", said Shepard.

"I may know how", Rookie says and pulls out something from his chest pocket. He went closer to the group and opened his palm, it was a small device which awfully resembled a mass relay without the element zero core.

"A mass relay toy? You gotta be kidding me!" said Ashley shaking her head.

"When Buck ordered to 'Grab that thing', he meant this", Rookie said, indicating at the miniature mass relay, "And the grenade exploded right over where I placed it in my pocket"

"But the Mass relays fling ships across the Milky way, not fling people across dimensions!" said Kaidan.

"This doesn't look like your normal Mass relay", Shepard said and started scanning the mini relay with her omni tool. "It does not give out any kind reading, looks fake".

"That plasma grenade was supposed to turn me into an indistinguishable pile of meat, even if it somehow didn't kill me, it still emits large amounts of radiation, I should've been dead, but I'm not…my guess is that this thing absorbed all the energy and used it to bring me here", said Rookie.

"Sir, should we hand this over to the Council?" asked Kaidan to Anderson.

"No, the Corporal showed up in the Eden Prime with this, if we do mention it, Saren will try to convict him for the attack in some way", said Anderson. "Rookie should keep it for now"

"Tell us about this mission of yours", said Shepard.

"That was planet Reach I was last in", Rookie sighed. "This was supposed to be just a simple mission. Go in, kill all the Covenant loyalists, and get out. Not much to do since the war is over"

"Wait, you're in a war!" asked Ashley.

'Damn it!', Rookie thought, he took a deep breath and started, "We _were_ in a war with a group of different alien species who called themselves the Covenant, the first contact didn't go well and their leaders thought that the humans were a blight, so they waged a war against us. The war lasted almost three decades, we almost got wiped out. It is officially over now, but we're still fighting remnants of Covenant resistance".

"That's way too brief Rookie for a three decade war and I think you're omitting too much", said Shepard.

"Sorry ma'am, but the rest of the info about the war is strictly classified, even if I'm here I still have to follow the protocols", Rookie replied.

"I understand, but if the war is over, then what were you and your squad doing on Reach?" asked Anderson.

"Buck, my squad leader, said that the UNSC wanted to re-colonize Reach but when we got there we found out that the remaining Covenant loyalists had setup many outposts on Reach" ,said Rookie.

"What are Covenant loyalists?" asked Shepard.

"Near the end of the war, one of the alien species joined our side, the Covenant separatists, because they realized that their leaders were lying to them about the ha-", Rookie stooped in mid sentence, 'Damn, you almost said it!' He mentally smacked himself, "-About the humans being a blight to the galaxy, so the remaining aliens on their side were known as Covenant loyalist".

"You're obviously lying about the last part", said Ashley.

"It's only a half lie. Anyway, we had to attack all the outposts in a single surprise attack so that they won't have any time to respond or escape", said Rookie, "So that's where ODST's came in".

"You never told us what ODST means", said Shepard.

"ODST is short for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper", said Rookie, "We are the elite operatives of the UNSC rivaled only by the Spartans".

"The Spartans?" asked Shepard.

"…That's a totally different story", replied Rookie.

"What kind of training do you have?" asked Anderson.

"To compare, I'd say my training is something similar to an Alliance N7 marine, the soldier class", replied Rookie, "Plus my HEV training".

Everyone was staring at the Rookie, eyebrows raised.

"Well, that's hard to believe", said Anderson.

"Sir, he was a pretty good shot with a pistol and his CQB skills are pretty substantial too", said Shepard.

Anderson nodded and turned to the Rookie,"What was that about 'HEV training'?"

"ODST's are trained to ride the HEV's or the Human Entry Vehicle. These look a lot like the escape pods here on the Normandy but in reality, these pods are used to deploy the ODST's from the high orbit into the battlefield", said Rookie.

"Is that even safe?", asked Shepard.

"No…but it sure is fun", replied Rookie, "Now with my mission, Many ODST squads, along with mine were plummeted from the high orbit to their assigned outposts…with my luck we got what looked like some kind of forrunner fortress, must've been their main outpost, it is there that we found this thing…and now I'm here"

"Again, way too brief for a mission", said Ashley.

"I've told too much to you already"

"Fine then", said Anderson, "Your history aside, what are you planning to do next now that you are here?"

Rookie's shoulders dropped, "I don't know, maybe I'll find some way to go back home"

"We don't have 'plasma grenades' here you know", said Shepard.

"No, I won't risk something like that", said Rookie. "Dunno how this thing works anyway".

"How about this, for now you can join our crew, we can't let you wander off just like that while Saren is looking for you, you will be safe here on the Normandy", Anderson offered, "And we'll help you find some way to help you go back to your dimension".

"And you can enlist in the Alliance military if that's okay with you", Shepard suggested

Rookie nodded.

"And you can keep your rank, you must've worked hard for it", said Anderson. "And I'll prepare a new ID for you"

"Won't your superiors get suspicious?" asked Rookie.

"Apparently, you don't know Captain Anderson", said Shepard with a smirk. "He can get around"

"Captain we are inbound to the citadel", Joker chimes in from the comm. "ETA ten minutes"

"Okay, so we're done here", said Anderson. "I'll go and prepare your new ID, welcome to the Alliance military, Corporal"

"Thank you, sir", said Rookie and gave him a crisp salute.

"I have one last question", said Ashley.

Rookie sighed and nodded.

Ashley crossed her hands, "In that video, what was that about 'Sleeping through the debriefing'?" she asked with a smirk on her face.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **I avoided the 'OMG! Your world doesn't have element zero!' discussion, it was annoying. I like it that way, less tech talk, more story.

Rookie arrived here _after_ the war was over.

And yes that IS right, they can't tell stuff about the war like the Halo rings and the Flood to anyone outside the UNSC or to the civilians to avoid world wide panic. Good for the Rookie though, poor guy had to talk a lot, again. You bet that'll give him a sore throat.

Next up, The Citadel!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Hi guys, in the last chapter, Rookie seemed way off his character, I know.

My thanks to Robo Reader 21 for pointing out my various mistakes, I appreciate it, hope you keep doing that. I guess I have to verify stuff from the halo and mass effect wikis before writing.

**Chapter 3 - The Citadel**

**Part 1 – Don't shoot Alien Civilians**

The Rookie, along with Commander Shepard, Kaiden Alenko and Ashley Williams - his newest crew members, went towards the cockpit of the SSV Normandy, to see the Mass relay jump to the Citadel. He had to hide his excitement over his first…well, second Mass relay jump. He never told them about his world lacking element zero and Mass relays.

According to the codex, the Mass relay catapults starships across the galaxy in mere seconds, Time to see that in action.

"Good timing Commander, I was just about to bring us into the citadel. See that taxpayer money at work", said Joker as the four Alliance soldiers approached the cockpit.

Rookie looked out of the window, unlike its small counterpart, the actual Mass relay was a very large structure, complete with a huge element zero core and rotating rings. The structure easily dwarfed the Normandy.

"Approaching relay in 3…2…1", said Joker.

Rookie grabbed one of the seats for support as the Normandy got closer to the Mass relay, in case he got thrown backwards. It was surrounded in Blue energy as it connected to the Relay, suddenly everything outside the ship turned black as the Normandy was boosted hundreds of light years across the galaxy.

Rookie felt something vibrating on his back, he turned away from everyone and went near the airlock, he reached for his backpack and removed the mini Mass relay. It now had a little element zero core and its rings were rotating. When the jump ended, the ship was surrounded by purple white clouds, confirming that they had arrived at the Serpent nebula.

Rookie released the breadth he was holding, 'For such a great speed, there isn't even a slight jerk, impressive', he thought. He looked at the mini relay, the core had faded and the rings had stopped rotating. He then returned to the cockpit, the rest of them too busy seeing outside to notice him coming from the airlock

The Normandy continued to soar through the thick clouds. Rookie stood behind the pilot's seat, watching in awe as the Citadel revealed itself. The Normandy flew gracefully among the ships of the Citadel fleet.

'I guess this guy has bragging rights', Rookie thought briefly glancing at Joker and resumed examining the various ships of the Citadel fleet.

"Look at the size of that ship!", exclaimed Ashley.

"Destiny Ascension, flagship of the Citadel", said Kaidan.

'Flagship? That _thing _is the biggest they have?', Rookie thought crossing his arms, now unimpressed.

"Well, size isn't everything", said Joker.

"Why so touchy Joker?", teased Ashley.

"Just saying, you need firepower too", replied Joker.

"Look at that monster, its main gun can rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance fleet", said Ashley.

"Good thing it's on our side then", said Kaidan.

Joker then started communicating with the Citadel control for docking request, while Rookie accessed the Codex stored in his helmet's memory for starship armaments. 'Uh huh…similar tech for starship guns…theirs powered by element zero, big surprise, looks like everything here runs on eezo …UNSC MAC guns, bigger…theirs have rapid rate of fire…our coolants are better, doesn't cooks crew alive…', he closed the Codex and saw the Normandy preparing to dock.

"Alenko, Williams, suit up, we're going with Captain Anderson to the human embassy", ordered Shepard.

"Aye aye Commander", both Kaidan and Ashley said and left.

Shepard looked at Rookie whose stomach grumbled. "Go and get something to eat but be quick, then meet us back here", she said with a light chuckle.

Rookie nodded and left for the mess hall. He arrived at the mess hall to find it empty, he found some food from the military rations. 'Some things never change', he sighed and sat on one of the chairs, removed his helmet and started eating. He heard the distinct tune of a door open behind him. He turned to see Captain Anderson coming out of his quarters and approaching him.

"Captain", said Rookie nodding.

"Rookie, I've done creating your ID and have enlisted you to the Alliance military, here are the details of your identity", said Anderson giving a datapad to Rookie.

"Thanks sir"

"Again, Welcome to the Normandy Rookie", said Captain Anderson and left.

The datapad had a pic of Rookie's face and beneath it were the details, 'Sooo…year of birth, 2158…Alliance military instead of UNSC…same rank as before…cool', Rookie thought. It was the last bit that disturbed him, 'Alliance marine…marine… can't call myself an ODST anymore', he frowned. They also had changed his birthplace to Earth, apparently they didn't have a colony on Luna, just a training facility for Alliance marines.

"Rookie what's taking you so long?—", said Ashley as turned around the corner towards the mess hall to see Rookie who just finished sealing his helmet in place, "Damn it", she muttered under her breath.

Rookie stood up, nodded to Ashley and they both headed towards the airlock.

"Take these", said Ashley, showing Rookie an Assault rifle, a shotgun and a sniper rifle.

Rookie took the Assault rifle, folded it and attached it to his back, "Can't carry anymore", he said.

"Okay, so that is Avenger mark 1 and that pistol", said Ashley pointing at Rookie's pistol which was attached to his thigh, "is Edge mark 1", she said and handed the rest to a nearby crewman and told him to return them to the armory. "Also take these", she handed him several grenades. He attached some to his hips and stashed the others in his backpack.

Rookie knew by now that the weapons in this world are just point and shoot, not very complicated. Still he decided to tweak the weapons once he got time.

"Why do you always have that helmet on?", asked Ashley.

Rookie shrugged, "Habit".

"Uh huh", said Ashley, "You know, I still don't know if you're a human or not".

Rookie handed her the datapad with his ID details. With a sigh, Ashley went through his ID. They both arrived at the airlock where Shepard, Kaidan and Anderson were waiting.

"Twenty five huh? I thought you'd be a lot younger", said Ashley.

"Let's go", said Shepard, as Rookie and Ashley arrived at the airlock.

They all followed Captain Anderson out of the airlock towards the elevator that led to the C–sec academy. Rookie looked over to the scene before him, the view of the Citadel, he looked all over the place, then looked towards the Normandy, he had never seen it from this angle. The frigate was a beauty, clearly designed for speed and stealth, but was smaller to what he was used to. 'I guess I have to get used to seeing smaller ships', he thought.

"Amazing isn't it?", said Ashley who stood beside him.

"Yeah", Rookie whispered.

"Elevator's here", Anderson called out.

'We waited this long just for the elevator?…I have a bad feeling about this', thought Rookie.

They all filed inside the elevator.

"Rookie, I assume you are not used to seeing alien civilians right?", said Shepard.

Rookie shook his head.

"So, don't shoot any civilians…alien civilians unless they fire first or I give the order", said Shepard.

"We're expecting a firefight?", asked Rookie.

"You never know"

An excruciatingly long elevator ride later, the group came out of the elevator into the C-sec academy. Rookie got his first glimpse of various alien races of this world, many of them wearing same kind of blue uniform. Suddenly he felt nervous as there were _too many _aliens around. He looked at the rest of his crew, all were calm and composed.

"The people in blue uniform, they're C-sec, the police force of the Citadel", said Shepard.

'People?'…wow.

They all walked towards a nearby terminal where Captain Anderson pressed some buttons, a rapid transit car arrived and landed in front of them. Now inside the rapid transit car, the Rookie sat cramped on the backseat with Ashley and Kaidan, he started reading Codex for the alien races.

'Turians, not very different from the elites…Salarians, those grey men from old sci-fi movies, tall and slender, can talk fast…Asari, human female appearance aside from blue skin and tentacle heads, mono-gendered, can also meld with any other species…wait, what?', Rookie's eyes twitched at the last detail.

"LT, can I borrow your omni tool for a bit?", asked Rookie.

"Why?", asked Kaidan.

"…"

"You know? That helmet looks creepy when you stare like that", Kaidan sighed and handed Rookie his omni tool.

'It always works!', Rookie thought smiling to himself. He downloaded the map of the area in his helmet and handed it back to Kaidan

"We really need to buy you an omni tool", said Kaidan.

"Yeah, beacuse next we know he overloads the Citadel's power supply and they'll blame that one on you too", said Shepard. "…Kaidan's right, that stare is creepy", she said looking at Rookie.

Everyone chuckled at that.

"You can buy him a new one when we get time, right now we have bigger issues", said Anderson.

The rapid transit car arrived at the embassies and the group headed towards the human embassy.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The Normandy crew watched as Ambassador Udina, the human representative argued with the Citadel council.

"This is an outrage! The council would step in if the geth attacked a turian colony", Udina shouted at the three council members.

"The turians don't found colonies on the border of the terminus systems, ambassador", said the Salarian councilor.

"The humanity was well aware of the dangers when they went into the traverse", said The Asari councilor.

"What about Saren? You can't just ignore a rouge spectre, I demand action!", said Udina.

"You don't get to make demands of the council ambassador", said the Turian councilor.

"Citadel security is investigating your charges against saren", said the Asari councilor. "We will discuss the C-sec findings at the hearing and not before", saying this the holograms of the councilors faded out.

Turning towards the crew and the human ambassador frowned at a certain black armored soldier who was slumped against the railing, snoring. "Captain Anderson, I see you brought half your crew with you", he said.

"Just the ground team from Eden Prime, in case you had any questions", replied Anderson.

"I have the mission reports, I assume they are accurate?", asked Udina.

"They are, sounds like you convinced the council to give us an audience", said Anderson.

"They were not too happy about it. Saren's their top agent, they don't like him being accused of treason", said Udina.

"Saren is a threat to every human colony out there, he needs to be stopped, the council has to listen to us", said Shepard.

"Settle down Commander, you've already done more than enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the spectres", said Udina. "The mission on Eden Prime was to prove that you can get the job done, instead Nihlus ended up dead and the Beacon was destroyed".

"That's Saren's fault, not hers", Anderson interjected.

"Then we better hope the C-sec investigation turns up evidence to support our accusation", said Udina. "Otherwise the council may use this as an excuse to keep you out of the spectres. Come with me Captain, we need to go over a few things before going to the hearing"

Looking towards Shepard, he said, "Shepard, you can meet us at the Citadel tower, top floor as soon as you're done waking your soldier up, I'll make sure you have top clearance", he looked at Rookie, scowled and left.

Captain Anderson sighed and shook his head, looking at Rookie and then went after Udina.

"And that's why I hate politicians", said Ashley.

"Can you believe this guy!", said Kaidan.

"I know right?—oh him", said Ashley seeing Kaidan who was looking at Rookie.

Rookie had fallen asleep during the Ambassador's argue with the Council. How? Nobody knew.

"Rookie wake up! I'm your Commander not your babysitter!"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **We don't really know much about Rookie's personality since he's alone for most of the game, sleeps during the beginning and the end cutscenes and no one talks to him directly at any time. I do not intend him to be a serious character like the Master Chief. If there are any suggestions, leave them on reviews and I'll see what I can do.

Not very action packed, I know, but I wanted to get over the 'Getting familiar with the place part' part. Action and recruitment in the next chapter.

Just a Pistol and an Assault Rifle? Nah, they're just temporary, his arsenal will change soon.

In Halo 3, we don't really see any racism among the UNSC marines and the Elites of the Covenant Separatists. Take a look at the various comments the marines make when they're around the Arbiter, shows they actually enjoy it…that or they didn't wanted to piss off a 7 feet tall alien with an energy sword. Based on that, I don't think I'll have Rookie show any hostility towards his soon-to-be-filled-with-aliens squad.

So yes, lots of Awkwardness but no Racism.

See you in the next chapter.

Merry Christmas!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 4 – The Citadel**

**Part 2 – Saren**

After waking the Rookie up by smacking his helmet with a pistol butt, the Normandy crew walked out of the human embassy into what looked like a waiting area.

"Welcome to the presidium, allow me to be your guide", A hologram that looked like an Asari called out as they passed near its terminal.

Rookie recognized the hologram, a VI or Virtual Intelligence, which had even less capabilities than an UNSC dumb AI. Apparently, for the kind of technology these people possessed, they never perfected the AI technology. The AI that are created tend to turn on their creators.

"Greetings and welcome to the presidium. My name is Avina, and I am pleased to be your virtual guide in this level of the Citadel space station"

"So are you a person or a program?", asked Shepard.

"I am a fully interactive Virtual Intelligence, programmed to provide spontaneous guidance at predetermined locations of interest throughout this level of the Citadel", the VI replied, "I may also be contacted through any of the presidium VI terminals, should you require any assistance"

"Give me the tour", said Shepard.

"You are standing at Presidium Tourism Terminal 1. On either side of this lobby are embassies of the various Citadel races, along with C-sec headquarters", said Avina, "On the far end of this level is the Citadel tower, where Council meets regularly to discuss matters of interstellar importance"

Shepard asked the VI about various topics about the Citadel. Rookie's eyebrows were raised when Avina mentioned the Volus being a 'Lesser species'.

'Lesser Species? Aren't they supposed to treat everyone equally?', Rookie thought.

After Shepard finished asking her questions they began to walk away.

"Goodbye and Thank you for using Avina, Keep it clean, and enjoy your visit to the Citadel"

'What the-'

"Okay, let's go the hearing could be starting anytime soon", said Shepard and took point.

The Normandy crew walked across the presidium towards the Citadel tower. The presidium was a very beautiful place, it looked something like a park, perfect atmosphere for embassies and the people who worked there. Rookie glanced around, there wasn't much of a crowd around the place, unlike the C-sec academy which was crowded. He saw in a distance, a human woman and a Salarian having a conversation.

Rookie hadn't talked with an alien, yet. Not that he was too eager, but still wanted to find out what kind of people they were. Back on his world, the Elites weren't too much of the conversationalists. They didn't even get Romeo's jokes that one time and took offence when he teased them regarding 'Wort, Wort, Wort'.

They came across a keeper, working at a terminal near another Avina terminal. The keepers, a mysterious insect like species that never communicated with anyone, their functions seemed to be similar to the Huragoks, except that they were only found in the Citadel and also seemed to be less intelligent.

"What is that bug thing doing over there?", asked Ashley.

"Please do not disturb the keepers", said Avina as they approached the Keeper.

"Let's just go", said Shepard.

The crew arrived at the Citadel tower, Rookie nearly fell backwards as he glanced up to see the height of the tower. They all filed inside the elevator.

"The council won't ask questions to me will they?", asked Ashley.

"No, I doubt it. We've made our reports. Now we just have to trust Ambassador Udina", replied Kaidan.

"No we don't, sir", said Ashley, "Commander is it a good idea to take Rookie with us to the hearing? Won't Saren try to convict him in some way?"

"At this point, Saren must've already known that I used the beacon", said Shepard. "If that's the case, then he already knows that Rookie's with us, no point hiding that"

The elevator finally arrived at the council chambers. The crew stepped out of the elevator and started moving towards the far end of the council chambers where hearing would be taking place. They climbed some stairs to see two Turians arguing with each other.

"Saren's hiding something! Give me more time, stall them", said the first Turian with a white face and blue markings.

"Stall the council? Don't be ridiculous! Your investigation is over, Garrus", replied the second Turian with brown face and blue markings and left.

The first Turian turned towards the crew and spoke, "Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-sec investigation into Saren"

"Sounds like you really want to bring him down", said Shepard.

"I don't trust him, something about him rubs me the wrong way", said Garrus, "But he's a Spectre, everything he touches is classified, I couldn't find any hard evidence"

"I think the council's ready for us, Commander", interrupted Kaidan.

"Good luck Shepard, maybe they'll listen to you", said Garrus.

The crew then again started walking towards the far end of the chamber. Rookie was confused by the Turian's behavior. He tapped Kaidan's shoulder.

"Sir?", Rookie whispered.

"What is it, Rookie?", replied Kaidan.

"That Turian, Garrus…he sounded almost like…us"

"You never talked with an Alien before?", asked Kaidan.

Rookie shook his head.

"Oh, don't worry too much, the Aliens aren't any different, thay're saints and jerks, just like us", said Kaidan, "So, you can talk with them the same way you talk to any other human"

'Hmm, interesting', Rookie thought.

He started looking around, the chamber was like an indoor garden but was a dimly lit place, one thing that surprised him was the lack of security. He activated his VISR and looked around, again nothing but diplomats, all looked harmless. He then looked up and sure enough saw a few small specs with red outline on the uppermost level of the Council chambers which looked inaccessible.

'Snipers', he thought.

They reached the stairs where Captain Anderson was waiting for them.

Shepard turned to Rookie, "Rookie, I've been thinking and Ashley's right, you should stay here"

Rookie nodded and sat on one of the benches.

"The hearing's already started, C'mon", said Anderson and led the rest of his team towards where Ambassador Udina was standing.

'Not a bad place to chill', Rookie thought as he sat comfortably on one of the benches. He could hear faint echo of Ambassador Udina shouting at the council. He leaned sideways for a better view, he could see a hologram of a Turian speaking to someone below him.

'That must be Saren…So he's not here at the moment, figures', Rookie thought.

Suddenly the Turian turned his head towards Rookie. The Turian's eyes widened and mandibles flared when he saw him. Rookie quickly stood straight to hide from the view. A moment later his comm. Crackled, it was Shepard.

"Uh, Rookie get up here, we have a situation"

'Oh crap'

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie got his first glimpse of Saren, he didn't know how to judge the age of the Turians, but Saren had really long head fringes, two of them connected to his brow plates. He had some cybernetic implants on his mandibles and a left arm that suspiciously looked like a geth arm that he was poorly trying to hide behind his back.

"That human! Look at him! Isn't he fits that dockworker's description of that 'Human that appeared out of nowhere'?", said Saren.

"We had established that the dockworker's testimony is not to be accounted for…but yes that armor is unlike anything I have ever seen", said the Salarian councilor. "What is your name soldier? And what kind of armor is that?"

"Lance Corporal J**** D****", replied Rookie. "This is an Alliance prototype Battle Dress Uniform, and Saren's trying to change the topic"

"What did you say? Battle Dress Uniform? I hope it does not have any illegal mods", growled the Turian councilor.

'Didn't he hear what I just said?'

"What were you doing there on Eden Prime, Corporal D*****?", asked the Asari councilor.

"I was in Chief Williams' unit, the 212. We were separated when I got knocked unconscious", said Rookie.

"If we hadn't rescued him, he would've been captured by Saren's geth. The only reason Saren's after him because Rookie saw him one time when he regained consciousness", said Shepard.

"Ah, but that's just the official report, maybe you should do a background check on him…or better yet, have one of the Asari Spectres meld with him and see what he knows", said Saren with the Turian equivalent of a smirk.

Rookie shuddered at the thought of melding, 'Like hell that's gonna happen'.

"I have a better idea, maybe we should do that to you", said Shepard.

"I am in the middle of a mission, which you interrupted, it will take days for me to reach the Citadel", said Saren, "Besides everybody knows I'm innocent, you can't even prove your soldier has nothing to do with the attack. You have no proof against me, it will be just a waste of time"

"Wait, so how do you even know about the mission to Eden Prime? It was top secret, the only way you could know about the beacon if you were there", said Shepard.

"With Nihlus gone, his files were passed on to me. I read the Eden Prime reports, I was unimpressed", said Saren, "But what can you expect, from a human?"

"Saren despises humanity, that's why he attacked Eden Prime", said Shepard.

"Your species needs to learn its place Shepard. You're not ready to join the council, you're not even ready to join the Spectres", said Saren.

"He has no right to say that! That's not his decision!", said Udina.

"Shepard's admission into the Spectres is not the purpose of this meeting", said the Asari councilor.

"This meeting has no purpose, the humans are wasting your time councilors, and mine", said Saren glaring at Rookie.

'He's manipulating everyone one of them!', Rookie thought.

"Saren's hiding behind his position as a Spectre, you need to open your eyes!", said Shepard.

"What we need is evidence, so far we have seen nothing except your suspicious soldier", said the Salarian councilor.

"There is still one outstanding issue, Commander Shepard's vision. It may have been triggered by the beacon", said Anderson.

"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now? How can I prove my innocence against this kind of testimony?", asked Saren.

'Nobody told me about any vision', Rookie thought.

"I agree", said the Turian councilor. "Our judgments must be based on facts and evidence, not wild imaginings and reckless speculations"

"Do you have anything else to say?", asked Salarian councilor.

Rookie's fists clenched.

"You've made your decision, I won't waste my breadth", said Shepard coolly.

The councilors nodded to each other. Then the Asari councilor spoke up, "The council have found no evidence of any connection between Saren and the geth—"

"YOU MIKE FOXTROTS!", shouted Rookie at the council before walking away, leaving everyone stunned.

"…Um, Ambassador? What did your soldier just call us?", asked the Salarian councilor.

"I don't know, Captain-?", Udina turned around to find himself standing alone.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie sat slumped against a wall near the stairs. 'I can't believe I just said that…what just happened?', He sighed. 'I guess it's about time they call in security and throw me out'

"Rookie? You okay?", asked Shepard as she approached him followed by Anderson, Kaidan and Ashley.

Rookie got up, "I…I'm sorry Commander", he spoke and turned away.

"Where are you going?", asked Shepard.

"Back to the Normandy", Rookie replied as he started to walk towards the elevator. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Don't blame it on yourself, we'll find some way to take him down, okay?", said Shepard giving him a reassuring smile.

Rookie looked away for a moment, then he turned towards the crew and nodded. "Thanks Commander", he said.

Ambassador Udina approached the group, irritation and anger clear on his features.

"It was a mistake to bring you, both of you, to the hearing", Udina began angrily "You captain Anderson, have too much history with saren, and you", he said pointing at Rookie "I don't know who you are or what you did on Eden Prime, but Saren used your case as a means to prove himself innocent, both of you made the council question our motives!"

"Don't you dare talk to The Captain and Rookie like that!", said Shepard shoving a finger on Udina's face, "You may be our Ambassador, but I won't hesitate to kick your ass if you show them any disrespect again"

"Calm down Shepard, the Ambassador's probably right", said Anderson keeping his cool. "But I know Saren, he's working with the geth for one reason, to exterminate the entire human race. Every colony we have is in risk, every world we control is in danger, even Earth isn't safe"

The mention of Earth not being safe got Rookie perked up. Earth was the only safe place left on his universe, 'If the Earth in this universe is in danger then…That's it…I'm seeing this through the end', he thought.

Shepard took a moment to think then asked, "What's our next step?"

"As a Spectre, he is virtually untouchable, we need to find some way to expose him", replied Udina.

"What about Garrus? That C-sec investigator? We saw him arguing with the executor", said Kaidan.

"That's right, he was asking for more time to finish his report, seems like he was close to finding something on Saren", said Ashley.

"Any idea where we can find him?", asked Shepard.

"I have a contact in C-sec who can help track Garrus down, his name is Harkin", said Udina.

"Forget it, they suspended Harkin last month, drinking on the job. I won't waste my time with him", said Anderson. "But if you do want to find him, I suggest you should start looking from the Chora's den, that's where he'd probably be"

"Thank you sir, I should go", said Shepard nodding to the Captain.

"Good luck Shepard, I'll be over in the Ambassador's office if you need anything else", said Anderson and followed Udina to the elevator.

Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan turned around to see Rookie sitting inside a Rapid transit car, with all its doors open, looking back at them.

Shepard smiled, "Let's go", she said beckoning to the other two soldiers.

Rookie saw his squad members approaching the Rapid transit car he was sitting in, they stopped when Ashley pointed towards a Salarian scanning a keeper with a strange device. They started talking with him, Rookie couldn't listen to the conversation. Shepard then pointed towards Rookie, the Salarian looked at him, then nodded to the Commander and gave his device to her and walked away. Shepard then arrived at the parked Rapid transit car and tossed the device to Rookie who caught it.

"Something for you to do, scan every keeper you find with this", said Shepard and took the front seat with Kaidan. Ashley sat beside Rookie.

They now headed towards Chora's den. They've been sitting quitely for sometime when Ashley burst out laughing. Everyone stared at her.

"I can't believe you called the councilors 'Mike foxtrots'!", said Ashley wiping the tear off her eyes, still laughing.

Kaidan and Shepard shared confused looks.

"You don't know what that means do you?", asked Ashley "Probably because no one uses that word anymore".

Kaidan did an extranet search on his omni tool and showed the result to Shepard. They looked at each other and started laughing.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **Wow, I didn't know the hearing would take a whole chapter when I started writing it. I tend to skip unnecessary dialogues and slightly change the original ones to suit it. Expect that a lot.

Not the best chapter, I know but it took too much space. My chapters tend to be 7 to 9 MS – word pages long and I'll keep it that way.

In the next chapter, Rookie (finally) gets to meet the alien squad members.

Happy New Year!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Toall the people who keep asking me WTF is 'Mike foxtrot'? Google it, I won't tell you. : P

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 5 – The Citadel**

**Part 3 – Thoughts**

Lieutenant Commander Shepard, the current XO of the Normandy, a candidate for the first human Spectre, the said candidacy currently jeopardized, sitting inside a Rapid transit car, thinking about the trial…

Saren, the rouge Spectre had who allied himself with the geth, tried to blame Rookie for the Attack on Eden Prime, the council almost believed him, but they knew better. If Rookie wasn't a human, he would've taken into custody following the trial. Shepard wouldn't be surprised if they were already ordered C-sec detectives to investigate, what is mentioned in his personal history will probably make them even more suspicious.

The dockworker said that he appeared out of nowhere…if that's the case, that leaves more questions…why did he end up on Eden Prime of all places? A coincidence? Why not Earth? Or any other place for that matter? Is what he told us really true? Did he really come from another dimension? That vid he showed the squad during his debriefing…it was highly distorted…but was it legit? Or a foul play?

If whatever he said is true. Then he has no one in this world that he can call family…his attitude suggest he's not interested in making friends, not really interested in having a friendly conversation. How does he deal with it? The loneliness. He does sound like someone with a good military training and respect for the protocols, but still.

From what Captain Anderson told her, Rookie looked like he was using an omni tool for the first time. Well, he didn't have one…and the fact that he was reading a Codex for the first time. When they were approaching the Citadel, Shepard did notice him, or his body language. He looked as if he'd seen this before…that or he wasn't really interested…or perhaps, not impressed, she couldn't really tell due to his helmet. She would talk to him in the Normandy when this was over. But would he really open up? Or will he avoid answering her questions? Maybe she could get to know the man behind the helmet rather than where he is from…

Shepard saw Rookie out the corner of her eye sitting at the backseat.

Even with the surprisingly strong and bulky armor, she could see his shoulders tense, the fingers of both his hands tightly intertwined and kept on his lap. He was looking out of the window, but she could tell he wasn't really enjoying the view of the citadel. Impatient? Angry? Or was he feeling guilty over what happened during the hearing? From the tone of his usually calm and barely-more-than-a-whisper like voice, she could tell that losing his temper and shouting was not something he was used to.

Saren had escaped…for now…

But could she really blame him for what happened during the hearing? Was it a good idea to include him in her squad? Did they do right by not telling the truth about Rookie to the council? But more importantly-

_Could she trust him?_

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, being a human L2 biotic, he was a career man, all biotics are. During his long service he thought he had seen every kind of the person this galaxy has to offer. But the man sitting at the backseat of the Rapid transit car was, what?...Unique? Suspicious? An enigma?

Yes, an enigma. He told us everything about himself, yet at the same time, nothing. He knew those kinds of people who "Mysteriously" appear during the missions. They are usually someone from a third party who always tend to sabotage the mission for a reason they knew themselves.

But from what he showed us from his little vid, he claims to have come from another dimension. But dimension jumping is just supposed to be a theory, or something from those old sci-fi movies from the Earth. It can't be real…can it?

And what did they really know about him as a person? Next to nothing. Combined with the fact that the guy never removed his helmet…so what _could_ they know?

Kaidan had seen his face only in the datapad that contained his ID. Big curious eyes staring back at him, a genuine smile on his face. He looked young for someone his age.

He sighed. Rookie's face confused the hell out of him. Good thing he doesn't remove his helmet, the girls would be all over him.

He obviously didn't believe his jumped-through-the-dimension claim. The vid was highly distorted…it could be fake for all we know, but he had scanned it after the debriefing before deleting it from the debriefing room vid player's memory. He scanned it for any visual edits and found none, maybe he was using some advanced editing software that avoides detection.

But the aliens he saw were nothing he had ever seen, there were more 'ODST' like him…most important detail that everyone probably ignored, was that he saw one of the ODST's insert a magazine into his weapons…that means they were using primitive weapons, also they didn't have any kinetic barriers, they compensated for it by using really strong and somewhat bulky armor. But he told us they had achieved spaceflight, but they didn't used Mass accelerator technology on their weapons, but why?

He was hiding something big, something that would be probably be a huge shock to us if he ever told us. Kaidan still didn't believe him entirely. Rookie could shoot them…or stab them from behind at any time. But what happened at the trial, the loss of temper was the least thing Kaidan expected from him. Well, he did get accused for something he probably did not do…_probably_...

So he concluded he wouldn't just judge him right away and go with the good old saying-

_Never judge a book by its cover._

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Now a proud crewmember of the Normandy, was sitting on the backseat of the Rapid transit car beside one of the weirdest men she ever met in her life, the Rookie. They had both been assigned to the Normandy at the same time. She didn't expect Captain Anderson to reassign her to the Normandy, he told her that Lt, Alenko had recommended her. No one seemed to mind that she was the granddaughter of General Williams, the one who screwed up big time at Shanxi. They treated her with equal respect as any other crewmember.

Yet, after Rookie stated his case, she couldn't help but feel a slight…what was the correct term? Professional jealousy at the preferential treatment that he was getting from Captain Anderson. Ashley knew that it was important to keep his identity hidden, incase he was telling the truth…the truth…she didn't knew if the dockworker had really seen him appear out nowhere, but if he did saw Saren kill Nihlus, which is true…but that was after he saw Rookie appear…he could've been really traumatized as stated by the councilors…but…NO! She knew it, she had a gut feeling about it, she knew Saren was the one to blame, not Rookie…the poor guy didn't even know where he was until we told him.

But what's with him and that creepy helmet he wears all the time? She had looked at his face on the datapad that contained the details of his ID. Doesn't looked that bad, why hide behind a helmet? Rookie had told her that it was a habit. But seriously, what kind of habit is that?

Rookie's insult at the council -while being hilarious- still came as shock to her. Since she had met him, she thought he was calm, collected – and carefree. But hell, he was still a human being, everyone breaks at one point and Rookie reached his breaking point when he got accused of the attack.

From the looks of it, Rookie didn't like to talk about, well, anything and always took time to think of the shortest answer possible. She then decided to have a try again…

"Rookie?"

Rookie turned his head to look at her.

"Are you…missing your family because you're…err, 'here'?", Ashley asks.

"They're dead", he says looking away again.

Goddamnit, I hate it when you ask someone a question you shouldn't have asked and when they reply…it makes things awkward.

"I'm sorry…", she replied quietly.

One other thing that piqued her interest was that he said he had similar training as an Alliance N7 marine. Was that for real? Or was he lying? Well, he said similar, not same training. And the way he told, he didn't sound like he was bragging, more like stating the facts.

It wasn't her place to go questioning him around, she'd rather leave that to her superiors. He was in enough trouble anyway.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Lance Corporal J**** D****, also known as the Rookie, was an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper of the UNSC, now a Marine of the Systems Alliance, assigned to the Normandy, was currently sitting on a flying car, which would've been awesome if he still wasn't feeling so damned embarrassed by his behavior in front of the Citadel council.

He never got time to stop and think about what happened to him since he arrived on this world. Why did he lose his temper?

He was an ODST and a damned proud one. Shepard had told him to replace his shoulder plates to avoid suspicion since they bore the ODST insignia, but he had refused.

They told him he was too young to join the ODSTs, he had proved them wrong. He had extensive physical and mental training, training that helped him to resist interrogations, training to strengthening his will power. Losing one's temper meant certain death in the battlefield. When they…or him, Saren accused him, all his training was forgotten in an instant…and he shouted…or putting it more correctly – cursed at the council.

Or perhaps the shock of traveling through the dimension still there? Had he not overcome it yet?

This was not going to happen again…ever again.

_I'll make it up for my mistake somehow._

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The Rapid transit car finally landed near a terminal in front of a doorway that led to the Chora's den. It was when Kaidan's omni tool beeped. He looked at it.

"Message from Captain Anderson on a secure channel, it says to look for Barla von at the financial district of the Presidium for any clue on Saren", said Kaidan.

"Fine then, Rookie and Ashley can go and talk with Harkin and we'll check out this Barla Von", said Shepard.

Shepard and Kaidan remained in the car while Rookie and Ashley got out. They saw the Rapid transit car lift off the ground and took off.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **My shortest chapter yet and my first attempt at writing the 'serious stuff'.

Yeah, I decided to throw a quick chapter because I be wont able to update for a while due personal reasons.

Sorry to disappoint you (Again) for no action. Action in da next chapter, I swear!


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Hey guys! I'm back! Sorry for the late update.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 6 – The Citadel**

**Part 4 – The Evidence**

"Okay Rookie, I'll do the talking – obviously", Ashley said as she and Rookie saw the Rapid transit car fly away.

They started walking towards the door that led towards Chora's den. They came to a place that looked like some kind of narrow skyway looking over a big and dark empty area below, at an adjacent wall a sitting silhouette of an Asari, displayed with glowing neon lights illuminated the otherwise dark balcony, a door was located at the corner of the wall which probably led to the Chora's den.

"All you have to do is look tough and we're good and don't—", Ashley was interrupted when her kinetic barriers flashed, indicating that she was fired upon.

They quickly dived towards the waist high cover. Rookie turned on his HUD, grabbed his Assault rifle and pressed a button on it's side, which expanded to its full size on his hands and activated his helmet's VISR, he could now see Ashley in green outline and 'Williams' written above her head in yellow text, courtesy of the IFF that Shepard gave him for their weapon's Combat scanners. He never got time to test the Avenger mark I.

So he decided to do what he did when he first found a Plasma rifle - test it on live targets. A reticule formed on his HUD as soon as he expanded his Avenger which was similar to the reticule formed by the MA5 series Assault rifles.

Rookie peeked over the cover and saw three hostiles in red outline, he recognized their shapes as Turians and instinctively ducked back as his position was peppered with Assault rifle fire from the hostiles.

"Let's flank 'em, you take the right side", said Ashley.

Rookie nodded and quickly sent a grenade flying at their position for distraction in its disc form, it missed but latched itself against the wall and exploded. The nearby Turian, who was standing in the middle of the three screamed in pain as he was caught in the explosion, while the other two dodged by diving away.

Rookie smiled, 'Sticky grenades…this should be interesting'.

On the other side, Ashley advanced while continuously firing her Assault rifle at where the other Turian took cover.

Rookie then reached at the corner and crouch-ran along the right side of the balcony. Rookie heard the beeping sound of the weapon's overheat from the nearest Turian, He came out of his cover, aimed at the Turian with the Avenger's smart scope and started firing, Turian had switched for a shotgun by the time and had fired two blasts at Rookie, it took out his weaker shields before he could duck back. Rookie lobbed another grenade, this time without expanding it into its disc form, a little ahead of the Turian, seeing the grenade the Turian dived away from it, right on the Rookie's side of the cover, as the Turian was halfway on his feet, his face was met by Rookie's elbow, breaking one of his mandibles and then Rookie fired at him at point blank range, finally killing him.

At the other end of the balcony, the remaining Turian made the mistake of diverting his fire at Rookie, who had his shields up by the time and he didn't saw Ashley switch her Assault rifle for her Sniper rifle, she then fired a single shot at the Turian, whose head exploded, splattering his brains over the area. Rookie walked towards the third Turian who was caught in the grenade explosion, he was coughing blood. Rookie turned off his VISR went to check him. The Turian slowly got up, growled and clumsily attempted to punch Rookie which he easily dodged by sidestepping. The Turian lost his balance and fell screaming over the ledge into the area below.

Ashley and Rookie both peeked over the railing from where the Turian fell, "What an idiot", said Ashley shaking her head, she then bent over and picked up the dead Turian's Assault rifle and examined it, "Hmm, Terminator Mark V, that's a very rare gun. Not something carried by your ordinary thugs. These must be Saren's men", she concluded and tossed it to Rookie and grabbed another Terminator Mark V for herself from the other dead Turian.

'But still, they were untrained and inexperienced', Rookie thought.

Rookie wasn't happy with the Avenger assault rifle, too much recoil, too much noise…that's why he'd take an M7S over an Assault rifle any day, no matter the damage difference. He took the shotgun from the dead Turian whom Ashley identified as a Scimitar Mark III and attached it to his back and held the collapsed Avenger Mark I on his hand.

"Keep these", said Ashley handing her Avenger Mark I to Rookie and attached her Terminator Mark V on her back. "We'll sell them in the markets when we get time"

Rookie barely managed to stuff the two collapsed forms of Avengers and one Terminator Assault rifle inside his rucksack and then they both started walking towards the entrance to the Chora's den.

'So, Saren sent his men after us', Rookie thought, 'But for whom? Shepard? Or me?...Well, he do knows that we are looking for the evidence, his men were positioned right where we were going, sounds suspicious. But that can also mean that we are in the right direction', Rookie smiled to himself, 'And we can safely assume that there _is_ some kind of evidence out there. So now we just need to figure out who has it'

Whatever else Rookie was thinking instantly vanished from his mind as the doors to the Chora's den opened to reveal something that he was completely unprepared to see – Half naked Asari everywhere.

Rookie shuddered, (which Ashley thankfully didn't see, since she was walking ahead of him) but continued to follow her while frantically trying to avoid looking at the Asari strippers and instead focused on watching out for someone who fit the description for Harkin, A balding man in a C-sec uniform, who was probably getting wasted.

The Chora's den was dimly lit place in red shade. In the centre, was a round bar surrounded with chairs and a round balcony where various Asari strripers were showing off their moves (Rookie quickly looked away again), while there were few tables along the side of the walls and some chairs in front of a few Asari pole dancers. Rookie and Ashley started looking for Harkin from the left side of the bar.

"A million light years from where the humanity began and we walk into a bar filled with men drooling over half naked women shaking their asses on the stage. I can't decide if it's funny or sad", Ashley commented.

Rookie shot an awkward glance over a man, a Human, ogling over an Asari stripper, 'How can these people get…um…attracted towards the aliens? Seriously…', he thought shaking his head.

Interspecies relationship was not something that was uncommon in this world.

'Yeah well, I can't imagine an Elite and a human woman kissing…OH MY GOD! THE IMAGE!', Rookie had the biggest urge to pull out his pistol and shoot himself in the head for what he just saw inside his mind. 'That is gonna haunt me forever'

They both came upon two huge overgrown turtle like aliens whom Rookie recognized as Krogans, who were apparently arguing.

"Back off Wrex, Fist told us to take you down if you show up", the smaller of the two Krogans warned the big one.

"What are you waiting for? I'm standing right here", the bigger Krogan, Wrex replied with what must pass as a smirk, "This is Fist's only chance, If he's smart he'll take it".

"He's not coming out Wrex, end of story", said the Krogan bouncer.

"This story is just beginning", said Wrex poking a finger at the bouncer before turning away from him to face two humans who had overheard the conversation, "Out of my way humans, I have no quarrel with you", he said and shoved past them.

"What was all that about?", asked Ashley.

Rookie shrugged.

They started looking for Harkin again. Ashley spotted him and went to talk with him, "Excuse me? Are you Harkin?", she asked.

The man in question looked her from head to toe and replied, "Hey there sweetheart looking for some fun?", he smiled wickedly. "Cause I have to say, that soldier getup looks real good in that body of yours, why don't you sit your sweet little ass beside old Harkin? And we'll see where it goes"

Rookie didn't had to look at Ashley to tell that she was pissed. She slammed her fists on the table, "Look pal, I'm not in the happiest moods right now. So, you either answer my questions while I'm asking you _politely, _or wait till he does the talking", she said nodding to Rookie.

Harkin turned around too see Rookie standing _right_ behind him, staring down at him. Harkin practically jumped out of his chair out of surprise, but somehow regained his posture. Rookie waved his hand at him humorously.

"Your little bodyguard doesn't scare me", said Harkin smugly, "you two think you can threaten a C-sec officer? I'll have you arrested for that".

"A suspended C-sec officer", Ashley corrected, "Besides nobody will care if a jerk off like you gets beaten up in some strip club"

Harkin looked both at Rookie and then Ashley, then sighed in defeat, "Fine, whatever, just ask your questions and go".

"We need to find a Turian named Garrus Vakarian", said Ashley.

"Yeah, I know him. He was sniffing around Doctor Michel's office, she runs the Med clinic on the other side of the wards. Last I heard, he was going back there"

Ashley nodded, "Let's go", she said to Rookie.

"Good. Go. Let me drink in peace", said Harkin before drinking another glass of wine and passing out.

As soon as they were out of the Chora's den, they both sighed in relief.

"Boy am I glad to be out of that god awful place", said Ashley in relief with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

'I'm never going back there, ever again', Rookie thought.

They arrived at the Rapid transit terminal right outside the door to the small skyway to Chora's den and continued to walk along the shortcut from the nearby alley. It was then Shepard spoke in a secured comm channel to both of them.

"Ashley, Rookie we just spoke to Barla von and we're headed to C-sec to talk to a Krogan named Wrex. How are things at your end?", she said.

'Wrex? That huge ass Krogan from before?', Rookie thought.

"We're headed to the Med clinic in the wards, Harkin told us Garrus would be there", Ashley spoke in the comm.

"Good, we'll meet you there when we're done, Shepard out"

By now Ashley and Rookie had came out of the alley and came to a rather crowded area that led to various other doors and stairways and on the other side a large window giving brilliant view of the Citadel.

"The Med clinic should be just around that corner, let's go", said Ashley pointing at a path at their left.

They started walking towards the path that led to the Med bay when the crowd at the windows dispersed.

"Hot damn!", Ashley yelped and ran towards the now empty place, Rookie followed close behind.

The sight before them was absolutely beautiful, the arms of the Citadel, the purple clouds of the nebula combined with its sun created a spectacular view.

"Isn't this just Awesome?", Ashley exclaimed.

"Sure is big…", Rookie commented.

Ashley crossed her arms, "That your professional opinion, Corporal?".

"Huh?...Just saying, this looks too big for just a space station", Rookie replied.

"Yeah, this makes jump zero look like a porta John", said Ashley. Seeing what must be a confused glance from Rookie (Can't really tell with that helmet), she added, "That's the biggest deep space station the Alliance has"

"Then the Council's job must be harder than we thought", said Rookie gesturing at the view.

"But that's no excuse for them to treat us like damn FNGs, maybe they just hate us", said Ashley.

"Do we still get crap over the first contact war?"

Ashley was genuinely surprised that Rookie was trying to have a conversation, she mentally shrugged, 'Maybe it's the scenery', she thought, but decided to play along, "You have no idea", she said.

"Maybe I do", said Rookie quietly.

'Yeah the whole three decade war thing', Ashley thought, 'Choose your next words carefully Ash, you don't want to end up like the last time'

"Honestly speaking", Ashley began, "Since we formed our embassy here, we've been expanding rapidly across the galaxy, colonizing worlds and whatnot, too fast in their opinion, maybe that's why they are so cautious with us"

Rookie slowly nodded and asked, "They don't try to know us better? As people?"

"No, I think they make their own assumptions", Ashley replied, "But when you put it like that, there's no reason why they shouldn't like us, I mean we have awesome beaches, beautiful women and this emotion called love…"

"Hmm…that's actually right", Rookie mumbled putting a finger on what would have been his chin if not for the helmet.

"Wait, if you're trying to get me in tinfoil miniskirt and thigh high boots, I want dinner first", Ashley blurted out, then added, "Corporal"

Rookie looked at Ashley.

'Uh oh', Ashley thought.

Then looked away again…and started snickering.

'Phew!, thank god he laughed it up', Ashley sighed in relief. 'Oh well, at least that got him cheered up'

Rookie stopped snickering when he looked past Ashley and saw a Turian in blue armor crouching just outside a door on the far end of the path, the door leading to the Med clinic.

Ashley followed his gaze to see the Turian hacking the door with his Omni tool, it opened slightly, enough space for him to enter in still crouched position.

"Something's wrong, let's go quickly", she said.

They ran past the crowds towards the Med clinic. When they finally arrived at the clinic, they both took positions on the either side of the door. They could hear muffled voices from inside the Med clinic, probably someone arguing.

"I'm not big on hacking and you don't have an omni tool", said Ashley, "So we'll just barge in, assume hostiles, you ready?"

Rookie drew his pistol but didn't say anything. Ashley did the same and held out three fingers.

3…2…1…Go!

Ashley pressed the button on the side of the door and it opened. Inside they saw four armed men and a red headed woman standing on the far side of the room in a Doctor's uniform. The room was divided from a small ledge in the middle. They also saw Garrus hiding just around the corner

"I didn't tell anyone! I swear!", the woman shrieked.

"That was smart Doc, and when Garrus shows up you stay smart. Keep your mouth shut or we'll-"

"Let her go!", Ashley ordered at the men.

The man who was threatening the Doctor quickly held her by the neck, pointing his gun at them.

"Who are you?", the man growled.

'Crap! Hostage situation', Rookie's mind quickly went through various scenarios when it was interrupted by a-

BANG!

Garrus had leapt from his cover and shot the man in the head from the side.

"AHH!", the Doctor exclaimed but somehow managed to hide behind one of the crates for the expected firefight.

Rookie took the opportunity to pop another thug's head who was just standing on the side of the first one. The remaining two had taken cover behind two crates around the end of the room. Rookie spotted a Fire extinguisher behind the crates and shot it, which exploded, creating a thick white cloud. The two remaining thugs came out of their cover, shielding their noses and coughing, and both were simultaneously shotgunned by Ashley and Rookie.

Rookie turned around to see Garrus approaching him.

"Perfect timing D****, gave me a clear shot at that bastard", said Garrus grinning.

But before Rookie could say anything Ashley interjected.

"What the hell is wrong with you?", Ashley yelled at Garrus while helping the Doctor on her feet, "You could've hit her!"

"There wasn't time to think, I just reacted, I didn't mean to-", Garrus looked at the Doctor who was cleaning brain matter from her hair, "Dr. Michel are you hurt?"

"No, I'm okay, thanks to you, all of you", Dr. Michel replied in an accented voice.

"What did those men want from you?", asked Ashley.

"They work for fist, they wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the Quarian", said Dr. Michel.

"Quarian? What Quarian? And what that has to do with investigation into Saren?", Ashley asked impatiently.

"I think it might", said Garrus and turned to the Doctor, "Dr. Michel tell us what happened"

"A few days ago, a Quarian came to my office, she had been shot, but she wouldn't tell me who did it", the Doctor explained, "I could tell she was scared, probably on the run. She asked me about the Shadow broker, she wanted to trade information in exchange for a safe place to hide".

"Where is she now?", asked Ashley.

"I put her in contact with Fist, he is an agent for the Shadow broker", replied Dr. Michel.

"Not anymore, now he works for Saren, the Shadow broker isn't too happy about it", said Garrus.

"Fist betrayed the Shadow broker? That's stupid even for him, Saren must have made quite an offer", said Dr. Michel.

"The Quarian must have something Saren wanted, something worth crossing the Shadow broker", said Garrus, "But Doctor, can you please tell us anything else"

"I'm not sure, like I said she wanted to trade information for a place to hide, she didn't…wait a minute! Geth! Her information had something to do with the geth!", said Dr. Michel.

"She must be able to link Saren to the geth, there is no way the council can ignore this!", said Garrus.

Ashley shook her head, "Oh boy, we have to go to that place again", she said silently voicing Rookie's thoughts.

"This is your show D****, but I want to take down Saren as much as you guys do, let me come with you", Garrus offered.

"How do you know my name?", asked Rookie.

"Shortly after the hearing, Executor Pallin ordered me to investigate into you", Garrus explained, "I looked at your reports on Eden Prime, I figured you were just at wrong place in wrong time. Besides you're a human, blaming you for the attack doesn't make any sense. But I know Saren was behind it, a gut feeling, as you humans say. I couldn't find the necessary evidence during my investigation, but I know what's really going on. Saren is a traitor to the council and a disgrace to my people!"

Before Rookie could say anything Ashley pulled him to the other side of the room away from the earshot of both Garrus and Dr. Michel.

"Okay, I'll call someone to take him under custody", said Garrus called after them, gesturing at the unconscious thug.

"He's a Turian, I don't really trust him, I don't think taking him with us is a good idea", Ashley stated.

Rookie nodded, turned around and beckoned Garrus to follow him.

"Didn't you hear the one word that I just said!"

"That's for the Commander to decide, not us", said Rookie. They started walking out of the Med clinic and Garrus joined them. Rookie had already figured out by their earlier conversation that Ashley was somewhat of a Xenophobe. He sighed, if he had arrived one year earlier he would've behaved much worse than her.

"You know? We're not the only ones going after Fist", said Garrus as they exited the Med clinic, "The Shadow broker hired a Krogan bounty hunter named Wrex to take him out"

"Yeah, we saw him in the Bar. Shepard went to the C-sec academy to talk to him, speaking of which", Ashley opened a secured comm. channel to contact Shepard and Kaidan, "Commander Shepard? Come in"

"Shepard here, we're in the elevator headed towards your position near the Med clinic"

"Okay, we'll wait near the stairs to the elevator", Ashley said over the comm.

"Roger that, Shepard out"

They waited near the stairs for a few minutes before they saw Shepard, Kaidan another figure…a rather large emerge from the bottom of the stairs.

"So, what's the situation here?", asked Shepard as soon as they came towards the group.

Ashley started explaining what happened while Rookie examined the large figure walking behind Shepard and Kaidan…Wrex.

"Good, we could use some extra firepower", Shepard smiled at Garrus.

"Thank you, Shepard", the Turian replied.

Shepard nodded and said, "Lets Move out".

Rookie Visor-palmed (Face palmed)

'We're going back to that place for real aren't we?', he thought shaking his head.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **Whoops! End of chapter.

Rookie's height is 6 feet 1 inch, in his armor he must stand at least 6 feet 3 inches. Now most of the crew's heights aren't mentioned in the wikis. So I'm guessing since Kaidan looks taller than the other human crew members, Rookie may be slightly taller or of the same height as Kaidan, just assuming.

Thanks to all you guys who have reviewed and put this in your favorites and story alerts lists. Really helps with the motivation.

See ya in the next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Here we go again.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 7 – The Citadel**

**Part 5 – Weird aliens**

After a brief introduction with the aliens, Rookie, along with his three squad mates, Commander Shepard, Ashley Williams and Kaidan Alenko, also with two Aliens, a Turian C-sec officer named Garrus Vakarian and a Krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex marched on through the crowd, heading towards the Chora's den.

Shepard took point along with Wrex, people tend to step aside to give room to the Krogan, so the group didn't have to maneuver around the crowd. They were followed by Ashley and Kaidan, conversing among themselves and lastly Garrus and Rookie. They didn't seem to have much time anyway.

It turned out that Wrex had told Shepard the same thing Rookie and Ashley found out from Dr. Michel, to interrogate Fist, who knew the whereabouts of the Quarian that possessed the evidence linking Saren to the Geth attack on Eden Prime, that and the Quarian was probably in trouble.

But one thing had been nagging Rookie since he encountered Fist's thugs at the Med clinic. They were Humans, Fist is a Human. Just for the sake for some extra credits he was prepared to betray his own people to Saren, the one who attacked Eden Prime, a planet inhabited by Humans. That or sell that evidence to the Shadow Broker instead of handing the evidence to the authorities. Either way, he did this for money.

_Greed_

"So, uh 'Rookie', are you some kind of Alliance Spec ops marine?"

Rookie snapped out of his thought when he saw it was the Turian, Garrus who had asked him. He just shrugged.

"Then what's an ODST?", asked Garrus looking at Rookie's shoulder plates.

Rookie shrugged again.

Garrus sighed, "No wonder the council found you suspicious"

By this time the group had arrived outside the door leading to Chora's den. The neon light emanated by the sign outside the door was shut down. Even the door was locked.

"Looks like it's shut down", said Ashley.

"The bastard knows we're coming", said Wrex.

Shepard stopped and turned around to address the group, "Then they're probably waiting for an ambush and holding position inside the door. Change of plan, if there is an ambush then me and Rookie will go in first and go around the right side, Kaidan and Wrex take the left side. Ashley and Garrus stay on the door, use sniper rifles. But don't shoot if there are by chance any civilians inside or if the people inside are unarmed. Am I clear?"

A small chorus of "Yeah" and "Yes ma'am" was heard from the group.

"Good, now Kaidan, get the door", Shepard ordered.

"Yes ma'am", replied Kaidan and started working on the door.

Rookie expanded his shotgun and took position beside Shepard near the door.

"You ready?", asked Shepard.

Rookie cocked his shotgun in reply.

"Move in as soon as the door opens", said Shepard.

As if on queue, Kaidan finished hacking the lock on the door. As it opened, they saw the first man where the bartender is supposed to be, he reached for his holstered gun, but before he could do as much as touch it, he was killed by two shotgun blasts from both Shepard and Rookie. Kaidan and Wrex came up behind them. Both teams took their respective sides. There were already several hostiles, all humans, all over the club, some even standing above the central platform. Rookie started by blasting away at the hostiles taking cover at the bartender's place, while Shepard started shooting the ones taking cover behind the tables. Ashley and Garrus started shooting hostiles at the top of the central platform and at the far end of the club.

None of the thugs seemed to have any body armors, just some weak Kinetic barriers.

The hostiles at the centre of the bar proved to be easy targets as they were huddled close together and were downed by a single grenade from Rookie, the grenade also blew a hole at the base of the central platform. Shepard started flinging chairs and tables at the hostiles. One of the men decided it was good idea to take cover behind the table close to the two soldiers and that move proved to be foolish as Shepard easily lifted the table using her biotics, allowing Rookie to blast the dumbstruck man with his Shotgun.

At the left side of the club Wrex and Kaidan wrecked hell upon the thugs with their combined biotics and gunfire and peppered several shots at the central platform, which was revealed to be hollow from inside.

At the back of the group, Garrus was taking shots at the two hostiles shooting at the group from the top of the central platform, two of his sniper shots missed but tore away the pole that attached the platform to the ceiling, further weakening the structure.

Rookie and Shepard slowly advanced while firing their shotguns to keep the thugs under cover, one of the thugs managed a lucky shot with his shotgun at Rookie whose shields depleted, he promptly took cover behind a table. Neither Shepard nor Rookie saw a Krogan bouncer hiding at the cover near the wall, he came out roaring from the side of the Rookie and punched him in the guts knocking the wind out of him and sending him staggering back against the wall. Shepard turned around and saw the Krogan take out his shotgun for a finisher.

"Oh no you don't", she said and biotically lifted the offending Krogan and sent a carnage shot flying at him. The shot hit him and sent him flying at the door of the club, where his head exploded when he attempted rise on his feet, a headshot delivered by Ashley.

Shepard ran to check up on Rookie who was gasping loudly for air. She helped him on a nearby chair, the punch had left a big dent on his armor. Rookie got up after he caught his breath, he had thoroughly underestimated the strength of the Krogan.

"Are you gonna be okay?", asked Shepard.

Rookie nodded, still breathing heavily. He then saw two Krogan approaching from the doors at the far end of the club. He looked at the Krogans, then the weakened central platform, then again at the Krogans. Then he walked past Shepard and threw a grenade at the base of the already weakened central platform, the resulting explosion took down the entire platform which fell screeching on the two approaching Krogans, crushing them to death. He then again sat on the chair, exhausted. The firefight was over for now.

Every crew member saw the resulting mess incredulously, except Shepard and Wrex.

"Oh C'mon! No one liners? Nothing?", asked Shepard smirking and took a seat herself, "Alright everyone, nice job, now regroup on me".

The rest of the squad approached them, Kaidan and Wrex had to walk around the platform since it blocked their path.

"Rookie, I know you didn't like this place…but damn!", said Ashley walking up to him.

"Some way to kill them", said Wrex with an amused grin. Behind him Garrus shook his head.

Shepard ordered Kaidan to check Rookie's injuries while she and the others checked the fallen platform which now blocked their path to the next room, a very small space remained at the bottom right corner of the door.

"Your ribs are intact, no internal bleeding, just sore around the area you got hit, nothing serious", Kaidan examined, "That could've been worse", he said and took out a container of Medi gel, but was confused as where to apply it since Rookie's armor had no visible openings.

Rookie saw this and took the container from Kaidan and poured it through a small compartment inside his chest plate, then sighed in relief as the Medi gel started to have its effect. The Medi gel worked at a slower rate than Bio foam, but at least it didn't sting. He then got up and walked up to the rest of the group examining the wreckage blocking the door.

"We have to crawl inside", said Shepard and turned to Garrus and Wrex, "I don't think you two will be able to fit in though, so stay here and don't kill each other, we're on the same team"

"Alright Shepard", replied Garrus somewhat reluctantly.

Wrex snorted, "No promises, kill Fist for me will you?"

"Uh huh", said Shepard and went first crawling through the hole, Rookie followed next, removing his rucksack and sliding it first through the gap then going in himself, then Kaidan and Ashley. As soon as they were through, they drew their respective weapons and followed Shepard through the door to the next room, there were two Humans standing, upon seeing the four soldiers they drew their handguns.

"Stop right there! Don't come any closer!" one of them barked.

Rookie almost pulled the trigger of his shotgun, but saw Shepard unfazed by the threat, not even bothering to raise her weapon.

"Warehouse workers" said Kaidan.

"All the real guards must be dead" said Ashley.

"Stay back or we'll shoot!", said one of the men.

"Do you honestly think you could take four well armed soldiers by yourselves?" asked Shepard crossing her arms.

The two warehouse workers didn't lower their weapons, but looked nervous.

"Look we're here to deal with Fist, I don't think he's worth dying for and we're allowing you to leave peacefully, so I think it's a good time to find somewhere else to work" said Shepard coolly.

The two men looked at each other, then lowered their weapons.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. I didn't like Fist anyway", said one of the workers rubbing the back of his neck and turned to follow his partner out of that room.

"I can't believe that worked!", Ashley exclaimed.

"Shooting people isn't always the solution", said Kaidan.

'Wow, I'll have to remember that', Rookie thought.

"Garrus? Wrex? There are two warehouse workers coming at your position, let them leave, they're harmless", Shepard said over the comm.

"Affirmative" came Garrus's reply.

"Right, let's move", said Shepard and took point.

They came across another locked door.

"You know the drill, Kaidan", Shepard nodded towards the door.

Kaidan obliged and again started hacking the door while Rookie took position beside Shepard. As soon as the door opened, Shepard and Rookie burst in, quickly scanning the room for hostiles. They were in some kind of office, complete with a couch, a few chairs and a desk at the far end where a lone man was standing, Fist.

"Why do I have to do everything? Time to die little soldiers!", said Fist and jumped at the back of his desk.

Shepard and Rookie went to follow him but quickly took cover behind the couch as they saw two turrets come out of the two opposite side of the desk. The turrets started firing at their position, slowly chipping away the top of the couch.

Kaidan overloaded one of the turrets, instantly frying its circuits. The other turret started firing where Kaidan took cover, using the distraction, Shepard and Rookie and Ashley came out of their respective cover at the same time and fired multiple shotgun blasts, the turret was destroyed before it could even turn towards either of them. It was then Fist's voice again came from the back of the desk.

"Wait! Don't shoot! I surrender!" Fist shouted slowly rising with his hands up showing he was unarmed.

Shepard drew her pistol and pointed it at Fist's head, "Where is the Quarian?", she asked.

"She's not here, I don't know where she is, that's the truth", said Fist stammering.

"He's lying", said Ashley.

"N-no!"

"You better start explaining before I lose my temper", said Shepard.

"The Quarian isn't here, said she'd only deal with the Shadow broker himself", said Fist.

"I thought the Shadow broker only worked through agents", said Kaidan.

"You're right, nobody meets the Shadow broker, ever, even I don't know his true identity, but she didn't know that. I told her I'd set a meeting up, but when she shows up, it will be Saren's men waiting for her", said Fist.

Shepard grabbed Fist by the collar of his armor, "Give me the location, now!", she said in a dangerously calm voice.

"H-here on the w-wards, back alley by the m-markets, she's supposed to meet him in about five minutes, if you hurry you can catch her", said Fist.

"Am I supposed to just forget your part in all this?", said Shepard still clutching his collar.

"We should let Garrus arrest him", Rookie suggested.

"For what?"

"Treason"

"He's right", said Shepard and released Fist and held him at gunpoint, "What do you have to say?"

"You came here, killed all my guards and destroyed my club! What else do you want?", said Fist in desperation, "The Shadow broker wants me dead, I need to disappear, please forget about me, I'm a ghost"

Shepard took a moment to think, "He's not our concern", she said to Rookie who reluctantly lowered his weapon.

"Thank you, you'll never see me again", said Fist and left through a door opposite to the one from where they came in.

"C'mon, we need to find this Quarian before it's too late", said Shepard and they left the place.

They reached the door from where they had to crawl out, Shepard went first, then Rookie, as he was halfway through he heard Ashley shout "Don't stare at Shepard's ass!", followed by a loud metal bang made by Rookie as he jumped in surprise and hitting his head on the fallen platform while crawling beneath it.

Rookie got out and saw Shepard trying to suppress her laughter. Even with the reinforced helmet, his head throbbed in pain, he could hear Ashley and Kaidan laughing their asses off on the other side.

"Relax Rookie, she's just messing", said Shepard still managing to somehow not laugh seeing him clutch his head with both his hands.

Ashley and Kaidan finally arrived from the gap, still looking amused.

"Not used to teasing are you?", asked Ashley smirking.

"I hate you"

"Awww!"

Rookie grunted in irritation.

After Shepard explained the situation to Garrus and Wrex, (Wrex was disappointed that they didn't kill Fist but still agreed to come along), they hurried towards the given location hoping to catch the Quarian before it was too late. The door to the alleyway opened and they all silently approached to see a Quarian flanked by two Salarians and a Turian standing in the middle of the alley.

"Did you bring it?", asked the Turian standing in front of the Quarian.

"Where's the Shadow broker? Where is Fist?", asked the Quarian.

"He'll be here, where is the evidence?", asked the Turian sliding his hands along her shoulders.

Rookie looked at Shepard who had a frown crossing her face. 'That guy's so dead'.

"Garrus, Ashley, take out the Salarians, rest of us will concentrate fire at the Turian on my mark", said Shepard looking at Rookie, "Rookie, take him"

Rookie nodded and silently moved towards the Turian pressing his back against the wall.

'Good plan, what could go wro—?'

"No way, the deal's off", said the Quarian and produced a grenade out of nowhere and threw at the Salarians who scattered to avoid being caught in the blast, then she ran for the crated nearby to avoid being caught.

Rookie saw the Turian about to reach for his weapon, he ran and drove his combat knife through the gun attached onto his back, the Turian yelped in pain and swung his arm backwards out of reflex, Rookie was expecting this move and ducked. The Turian was suddenly hit on the face by a large blue ball of pure biotic energy and clutched his face in pain and was finally finished by a shotgun blast by the Rookie. The two Salarians were simultaneously downed by headshots delivered by Ashley and Garrus.

Rookie turned the limp body of the dead Turian and pulled out his knife and holstered it. He got up and saw the barrel of a shotgun pointed at his face by the Quarian.

'Aw hell'

"W-who are you?", asked the Quarian.

Rookie rose to his full height, he was a full head taller than the Quarian, he looked down at her as she took a step back, he holstered his Shotgun and put his arms up.

"Calm down", he said. 'Where the heck is Shepard?'

The Quarian didn't seem to buy it, but nervously held her shotgun.

'I'm not that scary!...she's gonna shoot if Shepard doesn't come here fast', Rookie turned on his comm. "Wrex, That was careless! You could've hit Rookie!", came Shepard's voice.

'She's busy, how to deal with a nervous lady with a Shotgun?', he then remembered something.

"The hell is that!", Rookie shouted suddenly pointing at something behind the Quarian.

The Quarian looked behind her, Rookie took the chance to snatch the Shotgun out of her hands.

'Heh, classic distract and disarm trick'

"Hey, calm down, we're here to help, we are not with Saren" said Garrus walking up to them.

'Phew!'

The Quarian seemed to calm down, "Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him", she said.

"Are you okay, were you hurt in the fight?", asked Shepard.

"I know how to take care of myself", said the Quarian, "Not that I don't appreciate the help, who are you?"

"My name's Shepard, I'm looking for an evidence to prove Saren's a traitor"

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life", said the Quarian, "But not here, we need to go somewhere safe"

"The human embassy should be safe enough, let's go", said Shepard.

"I'm Sorry", Rookie said and held out the Quarian's shotgun which she hesitantly took back.

"Oh…it's fine", the Quarian replied.

The squad then started to move with the Quarian in the middle and Shepard and Wrex again taking point.

'We have the Quarian and the evidence, Saren is now officially Foxtrotted!'


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** I don't own mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 8 – The Citadel**

**Part 6 – They're coming with us?**

The squad was on their way towards the Human embassy on foot, it wasn't a good idea to go in two separate Rapid transit cars. Shepard and Wrex took point again, behind them Rookie, Garrus and the Quarian, Ashley and Kaidan at their six. The Quarian was walking in the middle of the protective circle of the group, between Rookie and Garrus, walking slightly closer to Garrus than Rookie.

Rookie silently shook his head, 'Great job scaring the little alien…Jackass'

They had rescued the Quarian who had the evidence from Fist's thugs who were going to kill her and give the evidence to Saren. Fist had ran away, saying the Shadow broker was about to hunt him down. Rookie didn't like it a bit, if it were his choice he would've shot him on the spot or hand him to the authorities, but it was not. Shepard decided to let him go, Rookie had to comply reluctantly, he couldn't risk to be charged of insubordination if he did anything rash.

They arrived at the elevator that led to the wards access, all of them filed inside, it was cramped but they all managed to stand without too much trouble. As soon as everyone was inside Shepard pressed the button and the elevator started moving.

"So, what's your name?" asked Shepard.

"My name is Tali Zorah nar Rayya" replied the Quarian.

'I already have hard time remembering any of those Elite's names and now this…' Rookie thought, 'Aliens and their long weird names'.

"But you can just call me Tali", the Quarian added.

'That works too'

"I'm guessing you're on your pilgrimage", said Garrus.

"Yes, but how do you know?", asked Tali.

"I'm with C-sec, we have to deal with the Quarians arriving or leaving the Citadel" replied Garrus.

"Yes I know, C-sec doesn't really trust us Quarians, when I arrived, I spent nearly three hours answering questions from one of the officers before I was allowed to put a step in the Wards", said Tali.

The elevator arrived at the wards access, it was a long corridor which had yet another elevator which led to the Presidium. They again filed inside the last elevator.

"I never heard of the Pilgrimage, what is it?", asked Shepard.

"It is a tradition among my people, my rite of passage into adulthood, when we reach maturity we leave the ships of our parents and our people behind", Tali began. "Alone we search the stars, only returning to flotilla once we've found something of value, in this way we prove ourselves worthy of adulthood"

"What kind of things do you look for?", asked Shepard.

"It can be resources like food or fuel or some kind of useful technology or even knowledge that would make life easier in the flotilla. Through our pilgrimage we show that we will contribute to the community rather than being a burden on our people", said Tali.

"I see…have you found anything yet?" asked Shepard.

"No, since I found this evidence, I've spent most of my time running for my life", replied Tali.

Rookie looked at Tali, she was the smallest of the group. The Quarian had a close resemblance to humans besides the Asari, aside from the fact that the Quarian wore some kind of environment suit complete with a helmet and had three digits on each hand, just like Turians and oddly curved legs ending in three fingered toes which gave away the alien appearance.

The elevator came to a stop, they all came out, took the same formation as before and headed towards the Human embassy. For the rest of the way, the party remained silent as they enjoyed watching the beautiful scenery of the Presidium while walking. When they arrived at the embassy they saw Ambassador Udina and Captain Anderson standing at the balcony facing away from them.

"Ambassador?" Shepard called as the group walked in.

"You're not making my life easy Shepard, firefights in the wards? An all out assault on Chore's den? Do you know you almost destroyed the place? What were you-?" Udina stopped when he turned around and saw the aliens, "What's this? A Quarian? A Turian? A Krogan! What are you up to Shepard?"

"Making your day Ambassador" Shepard replied keeping her cool, "She has information linking Saren to the geth", she said nodding towards Tali.

Udina relaxed and on a quieter tone asked, "Really? Maybe you should start from the beginning miss…?"

"My name is Tali, Tali Zorah nar Rayya", Tali replied.

"Tell us what you found" said Shepard.

"During my travels I began hearing reports of the geth" Tali began, "Since they drove my people into exile, the geth had never ventured beyond the veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth into an uncharted world, then I followed them until one of them separated from the group, then I disabled it and removed its memory core"

"I thought the geth fried the memory core when they die, some kind of defense mechanism", said Anderson.

"How did you managed to preserve the memory core?" asked Shepard.

"My people created the geth, if you're quick, careful and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved", said Tali. "Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged something from its audio bank", she said and activated her omni tool and pressed some buttons.

"Eden prime was a major victory, the beacon brought us one step closer to finding the conduit", came Saren's voice from Tali's omni tool.

"That's Saren's voice", said Anderson, "This proves that he is involved in the attack"

"He said Eden Prime bought him one step closer to finding the conduit. Any idea what that means?" asked Shepard.

"The conduit must have something to do with the beacon", said Anderson. "Maybe some type of prothean technology…like a weapon"

'An ancient extinct alien race that left behind some kind of weapon…This crap again!'

"Wait there's more, Saren wasn't working alone", said Tali and again pressed a button.

"Eden Prime was a major victory, the beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit", came Saren's voice again.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers", came a woman's voice.

"I don't recognize this other voice, the one talking about the Reapers", said Udina.

"Are they some kind of new alien species?", asked Shepard.

"According to the memory core, the Reapers are some kind of hyper advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago", said Tali. "The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction and then they vanished, at least that's what the geth believe"

"Sounds a little far fetched", said Udina.

"The vision on Eden Prime…I understand now", said Shepard. "I saw Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers"

"The geth revere the Reapers as Gods", said Tali, "The pinnacle of non organic life and they believe Saren can somehow bring the Reapers back"

"The council is just going to love this", Udina mumbled.

"The Reapers are a threat to every species in the Citadel space", said Shepard, "We have to tell them"

"No matter what they think of the rest of it, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor!", said Anderson.

"The Captain's right, we need to present this to the Council right away", said Udina. "Anderson and I and Ms. Zorah will go ahead and get things ready for the Council, take a moment to collect yourself and meet us at the Citadel tower", said Udina and left the embassy with Anderson and Tali.

Ashley snorted, "You saw how quick Udina changed his color? When we came here it was 'The Quarian' and as soon as he heard she had the evidence it became 'Ms. Zorah', slimy bastard"

"That's one of his skills, Chief", said Shepard, "Lets go"

The squad followed Shepard out the embassy into the reception area where a middle aged man called for them.

"Commander Shepard, my name is Samesh Bhatia", the man introduced himself. "Forgive my intrusion, but I have no allies to turn to"

"It's a pleasure", Shepard responded, "What can I do for you?"

"My wife was a marine, she was in the 212 on Eden Prime", said Bhatia.

"Wait, the 212?" Ashley interrupted, "Was your wife Serviceman Nirali Bhatia? I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, I served in her unit"

"Chief Williams, it's a pleasure", said Bhatia, "Nirali spoke of you in great respect"

"Rookie, you were in the 212 too weren't you? Won't you like to say something?", Garrus whispered.

Rookie shrugged.

"Do you always respond like that?", Garrus asked.

…

Garrus sighed and turned his attention at the conversation.

"There is no reason for your wife's body to be held like that", said Shepard, "Just wait here"

"The man in charge of this is Mr. Bosker", said Bhatia. "You can find him at the embassy lounge…thank you for your time, I just want to give my wife a proper funeral and the respect she deserves"

Shepard nodded and turned to the group, "Boys, wait here, me and Ashley will handle this", saying this she, Ashley and Bhatia left for the embassy lounge.

It was then Garrus and Wrex started arguing about Genophage, but then the topic changed to something about Krogan testicles.

"Uh, I think I'll just stand over there", said Kaidan and walked a couple of steps away from them, obviously not wanting to hear the argument anymore.

Rookie chose to ignore them too and took the time to check on the two new alien species he had encountered using the Codex installed in his helmet.

'Krogans…live almost as long as the Asari…four testicles, eww, skip anatomy…really tough at close range…have something called the Genophage due to what happened in the Krogan rebellions…Genophage results in decreased birth rates…The Quarians…Nerds…created the geth…geth turned on them…they live on starships…wear suits due to weakened immune systems…no longer having an embassy…hated by most of the other races…hmm, racism among themselves too…and here I was thinking that every alien race out there just hated Humanity'

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard had convinced Bosker to return Nirali Bhatia's body to Samesh, the old man was relieved to finally have his wife's body back, he said his thanks and went away. As soon as they were about to leave, a few marines entered the lounge with three crates.

"Mr. Bosker, we have all the weapons retrieved from Eden Prime, where shall I put these?", said one of Marines.

"Leave them there", said Bosker indicating at a corner of the lounge, "Officials will come and pick them up later"

"Are those geth weapons?", asked Ashley, "Can I see?"

"Oh sure, go ahead"

Ashley opened one of the crates and rummaged through various weapons, there were not just geth pulse rifles, but regular weapons, probably salvaged from dead soldiers, but then she found something strange, she pulled it out. She now held in her hands what would must be the biggest rifle she had ever seen, it was enormous, it had a very long barrel complete with a scope, probably a Sniper rifle, it was at least.

"Where did you get this?", asked Ashley.

"No idea", replied one of the marines, "Whoever found it said that they found it lying near the spaceport"

"Strange thing is, it uses bullets", said the marine.

"Bullets as in the ones used in those ancient weapons?", asked Ashley and shouldered the rifle, it was really heavy as well.

"Whoa! Keep that away from me", said the marine shoving the barrel away from his face, "It really packs a punch, damn thing almost broke my shoulders when I fired a round", said the marine.

Ashley quickly pulled her finger away from the trigger, "You mean this thing still works!"

"Yeah, and that's not the only one", said the marine and opened another crate, he pulled two more weapons, one looked like some kind of Submachine gun Ashley once saw in the museum and another was a pistol.

"So…do these work too?", asked Ashley.

The marine nodded.

Ashley examined the rifle that she held on her hands, the rifle looked too new for an antique, that and it was in working order, she then saw something familiar.

"Shepard, look", said Ashley holding the rifle out and pointing out something that was engraved on the gun.

Shepard looked at it, "You think it belongs to him?", she asked when she saw the engraving on the gun…

U.N.S.C.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie finished reading about the Krogans and the Quarians and closed the Codex, thankfully Garrus and Wrex's argument was over and they were standing a good distance away from each other, a frown on both their faces. Then Rookie's comm. crackled.

"Rookie, come up here, you'll wanna see this", came Shepard's voice.

Rookie went away from the three others and made his way towards the embassy lounge following the map me had downloaded earlier. He found the right door, he opened it and found himself in some kind of café, filled with various alien races and some Humans, the café had a similar balcony as the Human embassy, but most importantly, he saw Ashley holding a SRS99 AM Sniper Rifle , _his_ rifle, he approached Shepard, Ashley and a few marines standing near some crates, the marines gave him room when they saw him coming.

"Rookie are these yours?", asked Shepard.

Rookie nodded and held out his hands at Ashley, who handed him the rifle. He shouldered the weapon and checked the sights, then ejected the magazine and checked the bullets and found one round missing, then he slammed the magazine back, then took the M7S Caseless Submachine gun and the M6C SOCOM from the marines, he checked them for any kind of tampering or damage, he found none. He figured those geth must have disarmed him when they found him in unconscious state. He looked up and saw everyone staring at him curiously.

"You do know those weapons alright", commented Ashley.

Shepard turned to Bosker, "These weapons are certainly his prized possessions, let him keep it"

"Sure, we won't have any use of those antique weapons anyway", Bosker replied.

'Did he just call my weapons Antiques?'

Bosker then ordered one of the marines to keep the weapons in a different crate and deliver it to the Normandy.

"So, your people still use bullets?", Ashley asked as they walked out of the embassy lounge towards the reception area where Kaidan, Garrus and Wrex were waiting for them.

Rookie nodded.

"Strange…"

They saw the three of them standing there in silence, thankfully the argument had died.

"C'mon", said Shepard beckoning them to follow her,"I want to see the look on Saren's face when they present the evidence to the council"

They reached the elevator leading to the top level of the Citadel tower where they all filed inside and it started its ascent.

"So, Rookie, still not flexible on the whole conversation thing?", asked Garrus.

…

"I guess not", said Garrus.

After a painfully long elevator ride later, they finally reached the Council chambers. They came upon Captain Anderson who was waiting for them at the foot of the staircase leading to where the hearing was going to take place. Rookie and Wrex decided to stay behind.

"Is it because of what you said earlier?", asked Shepard.

"…Yes"

Shepard smirked, "I thought so"

Rookie saw them leave for the hearing, he was left behind with Wrex.

"What did you say to them, human?", asked Wrex.

"You don't wanna know", said Rookie.

"It must be something really bad if you don't want to face them, tell me", said Wrex.

Rookie sighed and told Wrex the word that he said earlier and its meaning.

Wrex burst out laughing, "They deserve it!"

'I'm not too proud of it', Rookie thought.

"You've certainly got a quad, human", said Wrex when his laughing died.

Rookie nodded and sat on a nearest bench.

'A quad? That sounds…uncomfortable'

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Tali presented the evidence to the Council, the evidence proved Saren was involved in the attack on Eden Prime, too bad he wasn't there himself, but it was obvious that he'd have agents in the Citadel and as soon as he found out that they had the evidence he dropped off the grid. The Council stripped him of his Spectre status, but refused to believe on the Reaper threat. On the contrary, they made Shepard the first Human Spectre. And now her first assignment was to hunt Saren down and bring him to justice using any means possible. Ambassador Udina went away with Captain Anderson for the preparation, they were going to get a ship for Shepard.

After shaking hands with the rest of the crew, Shepard and the others walked down the staircase to tell the good news to Wrex and Rookie. She was determined as ever, she now finally had the power to handle things herself, Saren couldn't escape now. They came down the stairs to find Wrex leaning against a wall and Rookie doing what was expected of him…

"Shepard"

She turned around, it was Garrus.

"What is it?", she asked.

"Let us come with you", said Garrus for both him and Tali.

"Why do you want to come along?"

Garrus looked at his feet, "As I told you earlier, Saren is a disgrace to my people, This is your show Shepard, but I can't sit around while he's out there, potentially endangering the whole galaxy, let me help"

"You've made your case, but…", Shepard turned to Tali, "Why would you want to come along? I thought you were on your Pilgrimage"

"The Pilgrimage proves we're willing to give ourselves for the greater good", said Tali, "What does this say about me if I turn my back on this? Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy, my Pilgrimage can wait"

"Wrex, how about you?", asked Shepard.

Wrex walked up to them, "There is a storm coming Shepard. You and Saren are right on the middle of it", he said, "I'd rather not miss all the action"

"Good, then welcome aboard everyone", said Shepard smiling. "Let's go"

"Yeah, but first let's just wake him up", said Ashley nodding towards Rookie who was still sleeping on the bench.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie felt his head explode.

"Argh!"

"Wake up, buttercup!"

He clutched his head in pain, "…Romeo?"

"What? Who are calling Romeo?"

Rookie blinked, his vision cleared, it was Ashley. He got up and saw everyone looking at him, amused.

"The trial's over, we're going back to the docks to our new ship, let's go", said Ashley.

"Okay then", said Shepard as Rookie and Ashley, "I don't think our ship will have food supplies for aliens, so Garrus, Tali and Wrex, go and purchase at least one month's worth food for yourselves and meet us at the docks when you're ready", she then turned to the rest of them, "While we will go and purchase new weapons and equipment for ourselves"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie had found out that the Commander Shepard had been made a Spectre, a Historical moment for the Humans of this world that he realized he had missed, and that they were going to hunt Saren down.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful. The squad spent time purchasing new weapons and equipment for themselves. Shepard bought Rookie a new Pistol, a Stinger mark V, also a sound suppressor for the pistol and a Shotgun, Scimitar mark III, a new better battery for his Kinetic barrier generator, now his shields were more powerful than before, Tungsten ammo mod for his weapons, High explosive and Flashbang mods for his grenades, Overload and Damping tech mines and a new Omni tool, Bluewire mark I, Kaidan said it was illogical (And dangerous) to give Rookie an advanced Omni tool.

When they finished 'Shopping' they made their way to the docks where Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina were waiting for them, the aliens were already present there waiting for Shepard.

"I've got good news for you Shepard", said Udina as the squad approached him. "Captain Anderson is stepping down as the Commanding officer of the Normandy, the ship is yours now"

"She's quick, quiet and you know the crew, perfect ship for a Spectre…treat her well", said Anderson.

"I'll take good care of her", said Shepard.

"I know you would Commander"

Shepard frowned, "I want the truth, why are you stepping down, sir?"

"You need your own ship, a Spectre doesn't answer to anyone but the council", Anderson looked quite saddened, "And its time for me to step down"

"Come clean with me Captain, you owe me that much", said Shepard in a soft tone.

"I was in your shoes twenty years ago, Shepard", said Anderson. "They were considering me for the Spectres"

"Why didn't you ever mention this?", asked Shepard.

"What was I supposed to say? That I was selected for the Spectres but I blew it?...I failed Shepard, ask me later and I'll tell you the whole thing, all you need to know now is that I went to a mission with Saren and he made sure that the Council rejected me", said Anderson.

"I'll take him down, sir"

"Saren is gone, don't even try to find him", said Anderson. "But we do know that he's after the Conduit, and that his geth are all over the traverse looking for clues"

"The Reapers are the real threat", said Shepard.

"I'm with the Council on this one", said Udina. "I'm not sure that they even exist"

"But, if they do exist, the Conduit is the key to their return. Stop Saren from getting to the Conduit and stop the Reapers from returning", said Anderson.

"I'll stop him", said Shepard.

Anderson nodded in agreement.

Then Udina told them about their next set of destination where they had to go look for clues. Artemius Tau cluster where they had to find an Asari scientist Dr. Liara T'soni, Feros and Noveria where there reported geth sightings. After their conversation, Udina went away while Shepard talked with Anderson privately.

Rookie and the others watched Shepard and Anderson from a distance. While Rookie didn't know much about the Captain, he could tell that Shepard was not quite happy that he stepped down, he was a mentor to her, she didn't liked him treated like that.

Shepard and Anderson finished their conversation and Shepard walked up to them.

She smiled, "So, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **So we're finally off the Citadel!

Now don't tell me suppressors don't exist in ME universe. Anderson once used it on his pistol in the novel _Mass Effect: Revelation_.

And we have the Halo weapons back! Hope my choice of weapons is good enough.

Till next time.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **I don't own Mass Effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 9 – Interlude I**

"_This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders, find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you crew, this mission isn't going to be easy."_

"_This began with an attack on a Human settlement in the traverse, but we know Saren won't stop there, his geth army isn't going to stay on the far edge of the Citadel space."_

"_For too long our species had been kept apart from the others, now is the time for us to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy, time to show what Humans are made of!"_

"_Wherever Saren goes, we'll follow. Wherever he searches for the Conduit, we'll be there. We will hunt him down to the very end of the galaxy and bring him down."_

"_Humanity needs to do this, not just for own sake, but for the sake of every other species in the Citadel space. Saren must be stopped, and I promise you all, we will stop him."_

…

Every single person in the Normandy had stopped their respective work to listen to the Commander, listening intently to every word that she said over the ship wide comm, a moment later after she had finished a series of cheers and claps were heard throughout the ship.

Rookie just smiled, he never really needed motivational speeches, but it was nice to hear one anyway. He was currently in the Normandy's garage, he had setup a working desk, a personal locker near his desk and a crate to sit for himself on the far corner of the garage near the Mako, he was cleaning his weapons along with several magazines for the respective weapons that were retrieved by some marines from Eden Prime, they were all in working condition.

In the garage, there was Garrus working on a console near the Mako, Ashley on her work station, Wrex just standing around, leaning on one of the crates and another guy Rookie didn't know. Rookie's table was littered with his rucksack, combat knife, guns, magazines and bullets that he was currently cleaning.

The Mass Accelerator weapon system used in the conventional weapons in this world was formidable, the damage output of the Pistols and Assault Rifles with Mass accelerator system was higher as compared to Rookie's M6 SOCOM Pistol and M7S Caseless Submachine gun. But no infantry weapon surpassed the power of the SRS99 Sniper Rifle, well except maybe for heavy weapons, but they weren't available for the Normandy team, they were only supposed to be available for the frontline soldiers.

The UNSC had developed its weapons to counter the Energy Shields possessed by various Covenant troops such as the Elites and Brutes, same was the case with the Mass Effect Technology in this world, except in this case the Kinetic Barriers were produced to protect the Soldiers against the Bullets from the Mass Accelerator weapons. The only difference between the Covenant Energy Shields and Kinetic Barriers was, the Energy Shields could stop from simple melee attacks to directed energy weapons, while the Kinetic Barriers could only stop Bullets traveling at a certain speed and some Biotic attacks to some extent.

In the Covenant army, the strength of the Overshields depended upon the rank of the soldier using it. From a Huragok Overshield (Weakest) to the Energy shields used by the Elite Ultras, Zealots, honor guards and Brute Chieftains (Strongest), While the strength of the Kinetic barriers depended upon the quality of the batteries and certain other modifications used in the Kinetic barrier generator for any soldier.

So, Rookie's weapons or at least the SRS99 was good enough to be used against Kinetic barriers, even if the others considered the weapon to be 'Antique'. They hadn't seen the power the Sniper rifle…yet.

Rookie had stripped the VnSLS/V 6E scope and the laser aiming module off the M6 SOCOM and attached them to his Stinger mark V which was already equipped with a suppressor. Now he went towards Ashley's working bench, where she was cleaning the rest of the squad's weapons.

"Ma'am?"

Ashley turned around to face the Rookie who was holding his M7S on his hands.

"Rookie, you need something?" asked Ashley.

"Uh, could you please fit my gun with Mass accelerator system?" asked Rookie holding his M7S up for her.

Ashley raised one of her eyebrows, "Why? You don't like our weapons?"

Rookie shrugged, "This is my favorite"

Ashley nodded and took the M7S from Rookie and examined it.

"You know? If I do manage to fit it with a Mass accelerator system, it would technically be illegal", said Ashley taking the Submachine gun from Rookie.

…

"Are you sure about this?" asked Ashley.

Rookie nodded.

"Okay, but first I will need you to explain me how to disassemble this", said Ashley.

Rookie spent at least fifteen minutes explaining Ashley to assemble and disassemble the M7S, being the Gunnery Chief she learned quickly, even allowed her to fire a short burst.

"Hmm…Good gun actually, material is fine too, the barrel of gun won't melt on itself on constant fire from the Mass accelerator slugs, I may have to replace most, if not all the mechanism from the inside this and have to replace the inner layer of the barrel, it's too thick, it's meant for actual bullets, also the suppressor should work too…" Ashley mumbled to herself.

"Fine I'll do it but it'll take some time 'cause I'll have to start from a scratch, I'm not a miracle worker though" said Ashley shrugging.

"Thank you", said Rookie and walked towards his desk.

"Hey, what about that Sniper rifle of yours?" Ashley called after him.

Rookie didn't respond and kept walking towards his desk.

Ashley followed him to his desk, "What's so special about it?"

Rookie regarded her for a moment, then picked the SRS99 and a magazine with a single bullet and slammed it into the rifle.

"…So, do you need a target?" asked Ashley.

Rookie nodded.

Ashley moved an extra crate that they had and kept it at the far side of the garage.

"Let's see what it can do" said Ashley.

Rookie shouldered the Sniper rifle took aim at the centre of the metallic crate.

CRACK!

Everyone in the garage jumped in surprise, Ashley and Garrus both came to the crate for closer inspection, the bullet had tore a fist sized hole through the metallic crate, but it didn't stop there, it had also left a dent on the hull behind it.

"Wow…just…wow" was all Ashley was able to say.

"Isn't this one of the antique weapons that you had?" asked Garrus, "I didn't think it was on working order…or it could do…this…amazing" he said looking at now useless crate.

"What the hell exploded?"

They turned around to see Shepard coming out of the elevator towards them.

Both Rookie and Ashley saluted.

"That was Rookie's rifle, Ma'am", said Ashley and gestured at the crate.

"Back to your stations", ordered Shepard after examining the damage on the crate and the hull, "And Rookie, don't fire that rifle inside my ship"

They all complied, Rookie went back to his desk

Now, it was his Sniper rifle he had to think about. The grain scrapped off the metal block in the Mass accelerator system is supposed to shatter on impact, if it didn't, the grain would simply pass through doing minimal damage. The Mass accelerator technology won't work for SRS99 since it's supposed to be an Anti-Materiel rifle. So, there was no choice but to somehow produce ammunition for it.

As for armor, he hadn't managed to repair his armor since he arrived, he took some fire on Reach and also on Eden Prime, and then there was the Krogan who punched him, leaving a dent on his chest plate.

Bored, he started checking his very own Omni tool. Bluewire I was one of the lowest grade Omni tools available. Currently there were no personal files installed. Rookie shrugged, Nothing he could do, so he again started to search his Helmet's memory for any recording not wiped out. He did found something…and played it via his Omni tool in a very low sound so only he could hear.

The recording showed a man in an ODST armor speaking to the Rookie.

"_Years ago, I told my father it was 'just dirt.' But it's not just dirt. It's where we live. It's our dirt, dammit. And more importantly, it's about who's standing on that dirt. Those children. Your family. Your friends. And those freaks are going to pay for every piece of dirt they've taken from us"_

Rookie closed his eyes and sat in silence, hands resting against the table. Gage Yevgenny, he led a long tragic life, gave everything he had to serve the humanity, and what happened to him in the end?...He got betrayed by his own people. Rookie was the one to find him, albeit in a much wounded state. He told Rookie about his life, right up to his current state, after that he told Rookie to run for his life, even in the last moment, he gave up his life to kill the Covenant forces by detonating the Shiva nuke. Rookie had promised Gage that he'll never forget him and do everything in his power to fight against the Covenant and do everything to serve the Humanity in any way possible…the sole reason he haven't even tried tampering the Mini mass relay that supposedly bought him here in this world.

The Human-Covenant war was over, the UNSC can do without one soldier. But Shepard can't, the Council choose to ignore the Reaper threat, there wasn't enough evidence to prove their existence, only the Normandy crew and Captain Anderson seemed to believe it, but they were only a handful of people, not enough to face an army of geth or Reapers, whatever the hell they were, Rookie had seen enough of the world to know that these Reapers are not to be ignored. The UNSC had tried to hide the existence of the Flood and for a good reason, but in the end, they were caught off guard when the Flood showed up on Earth and infected the city of Voi, which ended up being glassed by the Covenant separatists.

He wanted to help Shepard, Saren is a threat to Humanity, hell, he's a threat to every species out there. Rookie was going to help the Normandy crew, and if it meant that he had to work with the aliens and the fact that he may have to spend a long time away from his home…_so be it_.

"Who was that?"

Rookie opened his eyes and glanced sideways to see Commander Shepard looking at him curiously. He stood up and gave her a crisp salute.

Apparently he hadn't noticed her standing there the whole time.

"At ease, Corporal", said Shepard.

Rookie relaxed.

"So, what were you listening there just then?" asked Shepard.

"A recording" replied Rookie.

"Someone you knew?" asked Shepard.

Rookie nodded looking at his omni tool, he didn't say anything.

"So, are you busy? Do you have a moment to talk?" asked Shepard.

"…Why?"

Shepard shrugged, "I like to know the people I'm working with"

…

Getting no response from the Rookie, Shepard continued, "…And I know very little about you, as a person"

…

Still no response, "Look, you seemingly appear out of nowhere, claim to be from another dimension, and readily accept to help us without much questions, that's a little too convenient, don't you think?" asked Shepard crossing her arms.

'Fishing for information?...Unlikely. The request sounded genuine…and she does have a point though…if I'm here, I might as well play along'

Rookie sighed, "Okay, Ma'am"

"You don't have to be so formal, I'm a little flexible in that case", said Shepard.

Rookie nodded.

"So, are you having any trouble settling here on the Normandy?" asked Shepard.

Rookie shook his head.

"How's your progress, I mean with the whole 'getting back to your world thing?'" asked Shepard

"Nil"

"Have you tried anything so far?" asked Shepard.

Rookie shook his head.

"Why not?"

"I've decided to help you first" replied Rookie.

"With Saren?"

Rookie nodded.

"…Okay…So, how did you get your nickname? You sure are no Rookie", asked Shepard.

"Oh…when I was assigned my previous squad, I was the last one to join, so they started calling me 'The Rookie'", Rookie shrugged, "It stuck"

"Another question. Why do you keep wearing that armor? Isn't that uncomfortable?" asked Shepard.

Rookie shook his head.

"Not even the helmet?"

Rookie shook his head again.

"It looks damaged though, let's go and see if we can get it repaired", said Shepard and beckoned Rookie to follow her.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

"So, your armor has titanium plating you say?" asked the Alliance requisitions officer, apparently also responsible for the repair and maintenance work for the squad's armor.

Rookie nodded.

"And you also want me to make you some actual bullets?"

Rookie nodded again.

"Can you do it?" asked Shepard.

"Repair is possible, but I will need refined titanium, that ain't cheap ma'am" replied the requisition officer, "As for the bullets, I did saw what your rifle did back there, awesome man! Tungsten bullets right?"

Rookie nodded.

"I'll need a sample so that I can replicate it, but it's Tungsten, that ain't cheap either, ma'am"

Rookie handed him a bullet.

"For now, I can repair that nasty dent on your chest plate, so…"

Rookie removed his chest plate and handed it to the requisitions officer, it was detachable so he didn't have to remove his whole armor.

"Okay, I'll get it done as soon as possible" said requisitions officer.

"And while you're at it, see if you can repair that dent on the hull. Apparently, destroying that terminal earlier today wasn't enough for him, he wants to take down the whole ship" said Shepard playfully.

'For the love of…!'

"Oh and before I forget, I've got something for you", said Shepard reaching for her pocket and removing a Dog tag issued by the Alliance, handing it to Rookie. Then she left for the engine room.

"Uh…ma'am?"

Shepard turned around, "What is it, Rookie?"

"What's our next destination?" asked Rookie.

"We're headed to the Artemius Tau cluster, to find Dr. Liara T'soni" Shepard replied before walking away

Rookie nodded and went towards his desk, wearing the Dog tag and tucking it inside his weave, along with the Dog tag issued to him by the UNSC, he wasn't going to remove it anytime soon.

Rookie's stomach grumbled. So he checked the time on his HUD, it was nearly 9:00 PM Earth time. Time flies really fast in the Citadel, or maybe there was a confusion since the Galactic time and Earth time had a very large difference.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie walked in the mess hall and found it empty, apparently everybody had their dinner. So, he picked up some marine rations, took a seat and removed his helmet to eat. He was soon joined by Kaidan, whom Rookie saluted before resuming his meal.

"So, Rookie" Kaidan broke the awkward silence (For him at least, Rookie didn't seemed to care), "How do you like this world?"

Rookie shugged, "Good, I guess"

"For someone who just traveled to a different dimension you don't look particularly excited, Rookie", said Kaidan, "You did tell us that everything here was new you, right? The technology? And the aliens? I mean, if it was me, I would've liked to know everything about this world, you know?"

"I'm not you" Rookie simply replied, then quickly added, "Sir"

…

Another awkward silence.

"Um, sir?", this time it was Rookie who broke the it.

"Yes, Rookie?"

"Can you teach me some hacking?"

Kaidan's eyes widened in horror, "NO!"

"…Why not?" asked Rookie slightly taken aback

"Because I'm still fixing the Terminal you fried today", replied Kaidan.

Rookie just rolled his eyes and resumed eating.

It was then Kaidan suddenly winced and clutched his head in pain.

"…Migraine…Medical bay", Kaidan managed to say.

Witthout a word Rookie quickly wore his helmet and jumped on his feet and helped the Lieutenant to the Med bay. As soon as they entered, Dr. Chakwas saw the situation and quickly directed Rookie to help Kaidan into the nearest bed.

"Hmm, a moderate L2 spike, nothing too serious" informed Dr. Chakwas, looking at one of the terminals, "Lieutenant Alenko should be fine, he just needs a few hours rest"

"As for you young man, I don't think you've had your Medical diagnosis, am I correct?" asked Dr. Chakwas.

Rookie nodded and turned to leave when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I have to keep track of the crew's medical condition and you're no exception", said Dr. Chakwas.

'Medical diagnosis…hell no!'

Rookie suddenly dashed towards the door and almost ran into Shepard who jumped back to avoid running into him, both came to a stop.

"New rule, you don't run inside my ship", said Shepard, "So, what happened? Did the Doctor threaten you with a syringe?"

"Nothing like that Commander", said Dr. Chakwas chuckling, "I just asked the Corporal for a Medical diagnosis, I didn't expect him to run away like a child", she said shaking her head and smiling.

"Rookie, this is important. Do as Doc says, that's an order" ordered Shepard.

Rookie looked at both of them. After a dramatic sigh, he walked towards the office and went inside the Med bay to change into the Hospital gown that Dr. Chakwas gave him.

Ten minutes later he nervously stepped out of the office, wearing the Hospital gown. Shepard had left and Kaidan was awake, looking much better. Dr. Chakwas scanned his whole body with some device Rookie didn't recognize.

"These scars and burns…do I want to know how you got them?" asked Dr. Chakwas.

Rookie shook his head. He couldn't tell right away that he got it by the Covenant's directed energy weapons.

"Nice tattoo" commented Kaidan, who was sitting across the room, referring to the ODST tattoo Rookie had on his shoulder.

Rookie nodded at him smiling.

"Lieutenant Alenko please, you need to lie down and rest" said Dr. Chakwas.

"I'm fine Doctor, really" replied Kaidan before clutching his head again.

"Don't make me sedate you, young man", said Dr. Chakwas in a motherly tone placing her hands on her hip.

Kaidan reluctantly lay back on his bed. Rookie smirked at him which he returned with a frown.

Dr. Chakwas sighed, "I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm running a nursery for little children here"

After answering various questions and getting an implant for the Haptic Adaptive Interface by Dr. Chakwas, Rookie was allowed to leave.

Rookie walked into the office, the door closed, at the same instant the door to the Medical bay opened and Ashley walked in, she did notice the door to the office close but didn't say anything.

"Dr. Chakwas, have you seen Rookie?" asked Ashley.

"Ah yes, he just went inside to change into his armor" replied Dr. Chakwas.

Ashley facepalmed. She missed it again.

A few minutes later, Rookie walked out of the office in full armor, he handed the gown back to Dr. Chakwas.

"Rookie, Let's go, you and Vakarian are having a little competition" said Ashley.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie and Ashley both arrived at the garage, Rookie saw two human shaped targets standing at the far end of the garage.

"Rookie" greeted Garrus, who was holding two pistols, he tossed on to Rookie which he caught, "Williams here told me you're a good shot, how about a friendly match?"

Rookie shrugged.

"Both of you get ten shots, the targets are being scanned by a VI which will tell you the score" said Ashley.

They both took positions, and fired.

A moment later the VI announced-

Garrus – 100 points

Rookie – 60 points

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard walked into the Med bay to check up on Alenko, she saw him sleeping on one of the beds, so she decided to chat with Dr. Chakwas.

"Dr. Chakwas, how's the Lieutenant doing?" asked Shepard.

"Oh, he'll be fine Commander, he just needs a few hours rest" replied Dr. Chakwas, "I was just studying our newest human recruit, 'The Rookie's' Medical diagnosis, and I've found some really strange things"

"First of all, his DNA. It doesn't seem to match any recorded signatures"

"And secondly, he has some kind of Bio-Augmentation that I haven't seen before, but it has similar features as compared to the implants given to the marines"

"He also has some kind of neural implant, I don't know much about it. The Corporal was pretty vague on the details"

"I see…", said Shepard. She wasn't surprised, she was getting used to finding odd things about Rookie, "Well Doc, his file is classified for a reason, so let it be our little secret"

"As you wish, Commander" Dr. Chakwas replied.

They both heard the sound of gunshots coming from the lower deck.

"Now what?"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard walked into the garage to find Garrus and Ashley arguing.

"It's a draw" said Ashley.

"No it's not, I got more points, I won" countered Garrus.

"He did that on purpose! Don't you see?" said Ashley.

Shepard looked around, Rookie was back on his desk, again messing with his Omni tool.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Skipper, I'm glad you came. Rookie and Garrus had a little competition" replied Ashley pointing her thumb towards the two human shaped targets at the end of the garage, "I declared this a draw, but Vakarian doesn't get the point"

Shepard looked at the scores, then turned to Ashley, "Why are you calling this a draw?"

"Go and see for yourself?" said Ashley indicating towards the targets.

Shepard went for a closer inspection, she saw the Human target labeled under the name of Garrus, it had many shots at a single point in the centre of the head. Perfect.

She then saw the one labeled under the name Rookie, it had a smiling face drawn on the head of the target with bullet holes.

Yep. It's a draw.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **It is lightly hinted that UNSC marines (All Non-Spartans too) have some kind of Bio-Augmentation and also those Alliance marines have some muscle implants as well. Exact details are not mentioned.

As for the scars and burns all over his body, have you seen how much damage Rookie takes in the game? That oughta give him some awesome scars and burns.

Hope you guys won't chase me with sticks and pitchforks (or guns and cannons) for what I did with the Halo weapons.

It can be a while till I update this Fic, I have my finals next month, so I have to concentrate on my studies. Wish me luck!

Till next time.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Hey guys! How long has it been? A month? Well here we are now.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Mass Effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 10 – Therum**

**Not the best place for a vacation**

The Normandy was currently on its way to the planet Therum in the Knossos system of the Artemius Tau cluster. The Normandy's ground team was gathered in the CIC around the table surrounding the Galaxy map. Shepard was standing over to the Galaxy map, studying the datapad on her hand that had the information about Therum.

"How do you even know that she's here, ma'am?" asked Ashley.

"I don't", replied Shepard, "But this is the logical place to start, Sparta and Macedon systems are out of the question since we have information on the planets in them given by Admiral Kahoku and that Asari diplomat Nassana Dantius, we'll have to check them out later. Now we already have surveyed the planets in the Athens system, none of the planets have any Prothean ruins, but this place does"

"The Commander's right", said Navigator Pressly, "There are many Prothean ruins dotting Therum's surface, Doctor T'soni's got to be in one of them"

"_Hey Commander, we're here_",said Joker over the Comm.

"Good, start scanning the surface. Inform me if you find anything interesting", Shepard replied.

"_Aye Aye_", came the helmsman's reply.

Shepard looked at the team, "We'll probably be going in the Mako, so I'll be taking all the first timers, that means Wrex, Tali and Rookie. Gear up and assemble in the garage"

"You've never rode in a Mako?" asked Garrus to the Rookie, "I thought every Alliance marine was trained for it. They didn't train you?"

"Apparently they didn't", Shepard answered for him.

Garrus seemed skeptical but didn't say anything.

"Because he's afraid of heights", she added in a dry tone.

'_Quite the opposite actually_', Rookie thought rolling his eyes, '_but good one, dodging the question with humor, smart move on her part_'

"Okay, that's fine, Commander. But where are you gonna start looking for the Doctor?" asked Kaidan, "There must be hundreds of those ruins down there"

"_Uh, Commander? I'm picking up some strange readings…really strange, like off the damn charts_", came Joker's voice over the comm. again.

"Can you pinpoint its origin?" asked Shepard.

"_Yeah, wait a sec…done_"

The Galaxy map disappeared and a Hologram of Therum appeared in the centre of the table, a single glowing point marking the location of the origin of the strange readings.

Shepard smiled, "I think we have our destination, Lieutenant"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie walked up to 'his corner' of the garage where his weapons were laying around on the desk and started preparing them for the upcoming mission. He had checked up earlier on Ashley for any progress on his M7S Submachine gun. Apparently it was proving to be a problem to fit a Mass accelerator system of an Assault rifle into his M7S due to its small size. It wasn't ready yet, so for this mission he had to work with just his SRS99 Sniper rifle and Stinger Mark V pistol which was equipped with a suppressor.

On the plus side, since there was no need to carry ammo for other weapons, he could carry a lot more for his Sniper rifle than he usually could.

So he attached his sniper rifle on his back, Pistol on his hip and a few grenades half of which were equipped with Flashbang mod and other half with High explosive mod and a few containers of Medi-gel inside his rucksack and attached his combat knife on his shoulder plate.

Now armed to the teeth, he walked up to Wrex and Tali who were standing beside the Mako waiting for their commander who had yet to arrive. He saw Garrus making some final adjustments on the Mako, the curious tank in which they were supposed to 'drop' on the planet's surface…interesting.

If it were anywhere near the HEV drop pod ride, it would make him one happy man.

"Enough messing around, Turian", said Wrex.

"It's important, Wrex. Unless you wanna end up with one of the systems dysfunctional, let me do my work", replied Garrus without sparing a glance at the Krogan.

"Do you have to do this every time?" asked Wrex.

"Yes"

Wrex scoffed, "Stupid piece of crap"

"This 'Stupid piece of crap' can save your life in the battlefield. Besides, it's better than walking around in a planet full of volcanoes", replied Garrus.

"Garrus, you know about this a lot, right? Why aren't you coming?" asked Tali.

"Shepard's orders", Garrus shrugged, "Besides there are seating arrangements for only four people inside the Mako"

They heard the elevator door open and saw Shepard walk out in full armor and weapons.

"Everyone ready?" Shepard asked as she walked up to them.

"Yeah", replied Wrex.

"Yes, Shepard" replied Tali.

Rookie nodded.

"The Mako is ready, Commander" said Garrus.

Shepard nodded, "Good, everyone get inside then"

Shepard moved to take the driver's seat while the rest of them opened the door to the passenger seat.

As they were getting inside Rookie felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Garrus, "Rookie don't be afraid, it won't last long"

Rookie scowled at Shepard under his helmet, but was just rewarded with a smirk by her as she took the driver's seat. He just nodded to Garrus before going inside.

"Take the turret, Rookie", said Shepard.

Rookie complied as he took control of the turret while Shepard explained the controls to him. After she finished explaining, she ordered Joker to begin their approach.

"_Buckle up ladies! ETA thirty seconds. I'm gonna drop you a few clicks away just in case it proves to be dangerous, Commander_" came Joker's reply.

"Alright Joker, let's do this" said Shepard.

The garage doors started to open as Rookie prepared himself for the adrenaline rush that came every time he prepared for a HEV ride.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie gripped the harness for support as the Mako descended smoothly towards the ground of Therum, he saw Wrex sitting with relative ease, not too much bothered by the rapid descend while Tali was busy freaking out. Shepard activated the thrusters as the Mako approached further towards the ground so as to break its fall. The Mako landed with a slight bump.

Not as good as a HEV ride but good nonetheless. They could've used a few of these during the war. Tanks falling out of the skies would've been a good morale booster for the marines.

"_Nice landing Commander, your destination should not be very far from your current position_", said Joker over the comm.

"Just stay in the orbit and be ready when I call for an evac", ordered Shepard.

Shepard punched the gas. She maneuvered the Mako around the rough terrain of Therum, they would occasionally see lava flowing and rocks falling off the hills as Shepard drove the Mako towards the designated location.

_Well, so far, the things were peaceful and everything was going gre-_

Suddenly they heard rumbling sound, typically that of a dropship. Rookie turned the turret upwards and saw through the external camera the said dropship.

"Geth dropship inbound!" Shepard confirmed his guess.

The dropship zoomed ahead of them and dropped two Geth armatures on their path, the giant platforms which were half the size of the Mako. Rookie took aim at the Armature that was at the back and started firing the canon while simultaneously firing its machine gun. Shepard rammed the Mako against the first Armature sending it tumbling in the nearby pool of lava, while Rookie blasted the other Armature whose shields were down.

When they were finished, they came across a tunnel where there were a few geth troopers whom the Mako crushed like mere pests. As soon as they were out of the tunnels they were face to face with an even bigger version of the Geth Armature, the Geth colossus.

Shepard pulled a drift with the Mako as she avoided the siege pulse from the Colossus, while Rookie continued to blast its shields with the Cannon. As soon as they were far enough, Shepard turned the Mako and started at full speed towards the colossus. It fired yet another siege pulse towards them, Shepard hit the thrusters so as to avoid the impact, as soon as the Mako was directly above the Colossus, she increased the Mako's mass using the Mass effect field from the its element zero core. The Mako came down in full force and crushed the Colossus under its weight.

Shepard turned back to look at the team, "Everybody okay?"

"No", replied Tali and Wrex.

"Good", Shepard replied dryly.

'_Next time, I'll drive. Her driving is more horrible than the recruits_'

When they didn't saw any more hostiles, Shepard drove the Mako further towards their destination. Eventually they came across a dense ravine where Shepard couldn't drive the Mako through.

"Everyone get out, we have to proceed on foot from here. Wrex you'd better put your helmet on, the atmosphere is breathable but it's pretty hot out there", ordered Shepard as she wore her own helmet.

Everyone complied and picked up their weapons as they prepared themselves for inevitable ambushes from the Geth which seemed to be all over the planet's surface. As they all got out they saw Shepard surveying the area.

"Normandy come in, this is the shore party", said Shepard over the comm.

"_Shore party this is Normandy, do you need an evac Commander_?" asked Joker over the comm.

"Negative, we're proceeding on foot and we need you to pick up the Mako" replied Shepard.

"_Aye Aye Commander, we're on our way_", said Joker.

Shepard saw the team ready she turned towards them to give out orders.

"Rookie, take the high ground, provide sniper support. Tali and Wrex, follow me and be prepared for ambushes", ordered Shepard.

Rookie nodded and ran around the ravine and started to climb it. When he reached the top he saw the rest of the team proceeding forward. The sun was now close to setting, streaks of light were passing through the small canyon providing lots of shade, an advantage for him which was further helped him by the rough and uneven terrain which provided a lot of vantage points.

_Perfect_

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard took point, Tali and Wrex followed close behind as they carefully moved through the uneven terrain. As they came across another narrow ravine Shepard spotted at least seven geth troopers standing guard further ahead and a lone sniper on the top of a tower, she held up a fist as she stopped and brought up her comm., "Rookie take out the sniper on the tower, on me"

She charged up a carnage shot on her shotgun, she indicated Wrex and Tali to do the same. Then she burst out of her cover as did Wrex and Tali as they let the carnage shots flying. Three booms of the carnage shots and a crack of a sniper later, four geth troopers were down. The squad quickly rushed for the next cover as Shepard saw more geth troopers running down the hill. Tali hacked the one on middle and it suddenly started firing at its allies while Wrex charged ahead roaring and firing his shotgun wildly at the geth and they could constantly hear the resounding cracks of Rookie's sniper rifle.

Shepard spotted two more snipers appear on the farthest hill, she quickly took cover and activated her comm., "Rookie two snipers on the high ground!"

No sooner had Shepard gave the orders she heard two more cracks of Rookie's sniper rifle, Ashley was not exaggerating about the power of that rifle, her eyes followed the trail made by the bullet but couldn't spot Rookie, if she couldn't see him, she doubted the geth were having any better luck and the cracks of his rifle was echoing throughout the canyon, further making him hard to spot…so he does knows his stuff.

She saw two geth troopers take cover behind a rock formation, she smirked and took out a grenade and flared her biotics, she threw it and biotically maneuvered the grenade around the cover, taking out both the geth troopers, then she ran forward while expertly gunning down the geth with her shotgun.

After Wrex took down the last geth trooper on the area, they all regrouped near the tower. The area ahead was pretty open.

Shepard opened her comm., "Rookie, regroup on me"

They saw Rookie sliding off the hill from the left side of the canyon, as soon as he was on the ground he jogged towards them. On his way he picked up a Pulse rifle from one of the dead geth troopers, it could be useful later.

Rookie nodded to the commander.

Shepard nodded back, "Let's go, we're nearing our destination"

She took point as the other followed close behind. They came across a structure comprised of huge storage tanks connected through a bridge and a makeshift metallic wall. They could also see an entrance to an underground passage.

Just when they thought that the area was clear, they heard the damned sound of yet another dropship. It dropped a few geth troopers…along with a geth armature.

They all ran towards the crates for cover as they narrowly dodged the siege pulse sent out by the armature.

"Take out the troopers first!" yelled Shepard over the sounds of the gunfire.

Rookie complied and came out of the cover fired a burst from the pulse rifle through a trooper's torso. Wrex was firing overhead, Rookie looked up to see a strange geth hanging below the ceiling, Wrex's shot took out one of its limbs, it lost its grip and fell ahead of them. Before it could jump away Wrex took hold of one of its legs. Rookie took the opportunity, the last thing the geth hopper ever saw was an armored boot coming down its optics.

A siege pulse shook their cover.

"Got any ideas?" Shepard yelled over the gunfire.

Rookie looked at the base of one of the storage containers where it was damaged by the siege pulse, then looked at the stairs that led to the top of the bridge.

"Cover me!" he yelled as he ran past them towards the stairs.

Rookie reached the top of the stairs and found the bolts connecting to the bridge which was supporting the huge metallic container. He stick two grenades to the bolts and ran a good distance away to the other end of the bridge.

He pressed the detonator.

With a big explosion, the bridge disconnected and the now weak and unsupported metal container fell with full force on the Geth Armature with a ground shattering impact, crushing it under tons of minerals stored inside.

However Rookie didn't expect the bridge to fall as it did and he started sliding through the railing in a dangerous speed. He desperately tried to grip on the railing but further slided down, now going head first. He came to a sudden and abrupt stop.

Rookie looked 'down' to see that his leg was stuck on the railing…he was now hanging upside down a few feet above the ground, his heart pounding loudly.

Shepard chuckled as see saw Rookie's state, "That was a bit of an overkill", she shrugged, "But whatever works"

"'Whatever works'? There is no kill like an Overkill" said Wrex in an amused tone.

…

For a moment Rookie stared at the team awkwardly.

"Uh, help?"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

After helping Rookie off his amusing state they advanced towards the entrance to the underground cave since they couldn't fine anywhere else to go. Shepard pressed the button for the doors, as soon as the doors opened, they scanned the area with their weapons, the Rookie still holding on the Geth Pulse rifle he picked up. They had entered a passage that went further down below into the dig site. It was dark, save for the few working lights probably setup by the mining team. Shepard and Wrex removed their helmets, sighing in relief while Rookie activated his VISR.

They slowly advanced through the narrow tunnel when Shepard held up a fist and turned back to look at Rookie, "A lone Geth up ahead, use your suppressed weapon"

Rookie gently put the Pulse rifle down and un-holstered his Pistol, he crouched zoomed with the scope and saw a Geth trooper in red outline, facing away from them. Rookie started firing rapidly until its shields depleted and finally killing it as the armor piercing mod did its job and the suppressor dampening its noise. He then holstered it and picked up his Pulse rifle and nodded to Shepard.

They then advanced again and arrived at the walkway with a ramp that led down to an elevator, they saw another geth standing there, this time they didn't bothered with stealth as they weren't any other geth soldiers around and the poor geth was overkilled by three carnage shots and pulse rifle slugs, the Pulse rifle proved to be surprisingly accurate at long bursts.

The team then filed inside the elevator and they started their descent further bottom of the dig site. At their left they saw what looked like a wall tiles with several windows with barriers glowing with bluish light.

"It looks like these rocks formed around this Prothean ruin after it was built", observed Tali.

Wrex snorted, "Sterile white tiles? So, what is this? The Prothean bathroom?"

Suddenly, sparks started to fly on the sides of the elevator as it started to grind to an unexpected halt and the elevator stopped.

"Okay, let's get down", said Shepard as she jumped down first on the walkway below while the rest of them followed.

"Hello? Is somebody out there? Please help!" came a feminine voice from an adjacent barrier.

They turned to see a lone Asari hovering inside some kind of energy field behind the barrier.

"Dr. T'soni I assume?" asked Shepard, "Are you okay?".

"Are you…real?" asked the Asari, then she shook her head muttering to herself, "No, don't be stupid Liara, humans don't come down here. You're hallucinating, clearly"

For once Shepard looked confused, "No, you're not hallucinating, we're real"

"And now I'm talking to myself", the Asari laughed nervously, "Oh Goddess, I'm going to die here!"

'_She's gone bonkers_', thought Rookie, a bit amused, '_Just when I thought this day can't get any more weird_'

"I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy, and a Council Spectre. We're here to rescue you", said Shepard, "And you're not crazy, we're real"

"Ah, A Spectre's good. Though it makes sense, I would conjure up someone or something powerful to help, a protector figure", said Dr. T'soni.

Rookie held back the urge to facepalm.

"Well, I'll play along, considering I'm trapped here, I have to pass the time somehow", continued Dr. T'soni.

Shepard sighed, "Can you tell us how you got stuck inside there? We may be able to help you"

"Of course, the figment of my imagination wants me to retrace my steps, work out where I went wrong", said Dr. T'soni, smiling knowingly, "Well, I was exploring the ruins when the geth arrived, I ran in here and activated the defenses, but I must have touched something I shouldn't have. It trapped me in here, and now I'm stuck! As for how to get me out, if you're even real, you'll need to find a way past the barrier curtain, and then use the control panel to release me. If you're not real, then please, leave. I don't want to talk to myself anymore"

"Don't worry, we'll get you out of there", said Shepard reassuringly, then turned to the team, "Let's go"

"We went through this mess for that?" asked Wrex pointing at the Asari.

"She must be stuck here for days for all we know", said Tali, "Of course she will be panicking"

They went down the metal walkway where they found a mining laser conveniently pointed towards the base of the structure where the Asari was trapped.

"Okay, let's find something that could help us get past the barrier", said Shepard.

Rookie found the console of the mining laser and started tinkering with it. The tip of the mining laser suddenly erupted as it bore a hole through the base of the structure revealing a path.

"Finally, something productive happened which involved you pressing buttons and things exploding" said Shepard dryly, "Let's check it out then"

They followed Shepard into the newly formed tunnel which ended on a chamber that turned out to be an elevator. Shepard activated the console and the elevator started its ascent. It stopped right behind the level which held the Doctor.

"Oh, it's you again," said Dr. T'soni drowsily as the team approached, "Now I'm hallucinating you're inside the tower. Recurring characters, I must truly be mad now…I thought I heard thunder before"

"We used a mining laser to blast through", replied Shepard.

The Doctor gasped, "Goddess, you're real!"

"Finally", Shepard sighed, "How long were you in there for?"

"I lost track of time after a while", replied Dr. T'soni, "But I'm sorry, I thought you were a hallucination!"

"It's okay, don't worry about it", said Shepard, "Now, how do we get you out of there?"

"That button on the control panel near you should deactivate this field" said Dr. T'soni frantically, "Hurry!"

Rookie started but was held back by Shepard, "We want the field disabled, not exploded"

"It is unlikely that this field can explode", said Dr. T'soni.

Shepard started pressing buttons the console, "He once overloaded a terminal and it exploded as if grenades went off, if you can explain that to me, I'll believe you"

The field dissipated and the Asari fell in front of them on the floor. Rookie helped her on her feet.

"Are you alright?", asked Shepard.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you", replied Dr. T'soni.

"Do you know how do we get out of this place?" asked Shepard.

"There's an elevator behind us, in the centre of the tower. At least, I think it's an elevator. It should take us out of here, but we should leave before more geth arrive", replied Dr. T'soni.

"Right, everyone double back to the elevator!" ordered Shepard.

They ran towards the elevator where Dr. T'soni activated it and it started its ascent once again, Rookie took the time to put the Geth Pulse rifle inside his rucksack.

"I…I can't believe it", said Dr. T'soni, "The Geth beyond the veil…and what were they doing here?"

"Your mother Matriarch Benezia is working for a rouge Spectre Saren Arterius and these geth are working for him", said Shepard, "Do you know anything about it?"

"What!...but…my mother…no…sorry I don't know anything about it", said Dr. T'soni slowly shaking her head, "I haven't talked with my mother in years"

"Well, she's working for saren now, whose side are you on?" asked Shepard crossing her arms.

"What! No! I'm not on anybody's side, I'm just an archeologist" replied Dr. T'soni, again panicking.

"Then do you have any idea why were Saren's geth are looking for you? What could he want from you?" asked Shepard.

"I don't know" said Dr. T'soni bowing her head, "Do really think that Benezia is involved"

"Yes and I think they want to use your knowledge of Protheans to find the Conduit", said Shepard, "Do you know what that is?"

"The Conduit? But I don't-"

An explosion shook the entire ruin.

"Keelah, what was that?" asked Tali.

"The mining laser you used must have caused a seismic event", said Dr. T'soni, "We must get out of here, quickly!"

…

Rookie felt everyone's eyes upon him.

"I take back what I said earlier, this isn't productive at all", said Shepard, then she opened her comm. channel, "Joker, we need evac, get the Normandy airborne and lock in on my signal, on the double mister!"

"_Aye Aye Commander, secure and aweigh, ETA eight minutes_" replied Joker.

"If I die here, I'll kill you" said Wrex glaring at Rookie.

'_That seems physically impossible_', Rookie thought.

The elevator came to a stop as they reached the top most level as the elevator would take and the team saw Three Krogan and four Geth snipers walk towards them through a disabled barrier. Shepard turned back and gave Rookie a small nod towards the Doctor, Rookie complied and quietly stood beside the Doctor who was standing at the back of the group.

"Surrender, or don't. That would be more fun" said the leading Krogan.

"Im case you didn't notice, this whole place is falling apart", stated Shepard, frustration clear in her voice.

"Exhilarating isn't it?" replied the Krogan looking rather amused.

'_We're too bunched up_', thought Rookie observing the group and the surrounding chamber.

Shepard looked back at the group again before turning back at the Krogan, She realized it too.

"Thanks for getting the barrier down" said the leading Krogan, "Now hand over the Doctor"

"Whatever you want you will not get it from me" stated Dr. T'soni.

"She'll stay with us, Thanks" said Shepard.

"Not an option", said the Krogan shaking his head, "Saren wants her, and he always gets what he wants", he then turned to his troops, "Kill them but spare the Asari if you can, if not", the Krogan shrugged, "It doesn't matter"

"Scatter!" ordered Shepard.

The team did so, Rookie grabbed the Doctor's hand and ran to the back of the chamber which had a pillar to provide cover for him and the Doctor as they narrowly avoided the sniper shots from the geth. Rookie indicated the Doctor to stay in cover, then he peeked out of his cover shouldering his Sniper rifle, he saw Tali pinned down by the four geth snipers, she quickly came out of her cover and overloaded two of the Snipers standing close together, Rookie used this distraction-

CRACK!

CRACK!

The two remaining geth snipers went down missing their optics, he then saw Wrex and a Krogan running at full speed towards each other, they collided like two freight trains. Wrex being the bigger Krogan, was on his feet while the other one fell down, Wrex then put his shotgun on the Krogans face and pulled the trigger.

Shepard dived away, dodging the Krogan threatening to crush her by running over her, she biotically slammed the Krogan against the wall in mid air and landed gracefully on one knee, then she let a carnage shot flying at the Krogan.

'_Wait…where's the third one?_'

Rookie turned to look at the Doctor and saw her backing away from the Krogan who approached them from the other side of the cover, his back turned at the Rookie.

CRACK!

CRACK!

The shots took a big chunk of the Krogan's hump away, the Krogan turned towards him glaring at him with bloodshot eyes, too angry to notice the injury. He let out a roar as the he charged towards the Rookie. He was too close. The Krogan slammed him against the wall, making Rookie drop his rifle while grunting in pain, then the Krogan roared at his face again…

_Big mistake_

Rookie pulled out a grenade. He summoned his remaining strength and thrust the grenade down the throat of the still roaring Krogan as far as his hand would go, he pulled it out took a step back. Now the bewildered Krogan desperately tried to reach down his throat for the grenade. Rookie kicked him down the steep floor, the Krogan went tumbling towards the centre of the chamber where its head burst out in a gory explosion.

Rookie picked up his rifle and attached it to his back, then went to check on the Doctor.

"Thank you" said Dr. T'soni.

Rookie nodded and beckoned her to follow him.

Another explosion.

"We don't have much time, move, MOVE!" yelled Shepard.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The team came out of the falling ruin on the metal ramps and saw the Normandy with its garage doors opened on the edge. Rookie was behind the team right behind the Dr. T'soni who was running alongside Shepard. Tali jumped, then Wrex, but the Doctor hesitated.

"Come on, Jump!" urged Shepard.

"I, but-"

Dr. T'soni didn't get the time to finish as Rookie picked her up on his shoulder and jumped inside the Normandy's garage, followed by Shepard. Once inside he put the Doctor down on her feet and turned to look back at the destruction, Shepard came and stood beside him.

The volcanoes erupted everywhere and submerged the Prothean ruins and destroying them in the process.

Shepard smirked at Rookie, "And all this began with you pressing buttons"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N:** Ah, it's good to be back and writing again. Though the updates may still take time, but they will happen.

Till next time.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** Hey guys, if you were wondering about Liara going crazy in the previous chapter, that _Actually _happensif you pick her up just before the Ilos mission. Those dialogues were hilarious.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 11 – Test Drive**

"Too close Commander, ten more minutes and we would have been swimming in molten sulphur", said Joker over the comm. "The Normandy isn't equipped to land on exploding volcanoes, they tend to fry our sensors and melt out hull, just for future reference"

The whole of the Normandy ground team had assembled in the debriefing room, all were seated except Shepard and Dr. T'soni, who were standing in the centre.

"We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?" asked Dr. T'soni incredulously.

"He saved our asses", said Shepard shrugging, "I guess he deserves to make some jokes"

"I see, It must be a human thing", noted Dr. T'soni, "I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species, Commander. But I am grateful to you, you save my life back there, and not just from the volcanoes. Those geth would have killed me or dragged me off to Saren"

Then Kaidan interrupted, "What did Saren want from you? Do you know something about the Conduit?"

"Only that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction", replied Dr. T'soni, "That is my real area of expertise, I have spent the past fifty years figuring out what happened to them"

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "Just how old are you exactly?"

"I hate to admit it, but I'm only a hundred and six", replied Dr. T'soni blushing and slightly bowing her head.

"Damn! I hope I look that good when I'm your age", said Ashley dryly.

"A century may seem a long time to a short lived species like yours, but among the Asari I am barely considered more than a child", replied Dr. T'soni.

'_So, does that make me a baby_?' thought Rookie.

"That is why, my research does not receive the attention it deserves", continued Dr. T'soni, "Because of my youth, other Asari scholars tend to dismiss my theories on what happened to the Protheans"

"I've got my own theory about why the Protheans disappeared", stated Shepard.

"With all due respect, Commander. I have heard every theory out there", said Dr. T'soni, "The problem is the necessary evidence to support them. The Protheans left remarkably little behind, it is almost as if someone did not want the mystery solved, it is like someone came along after the Protheans were gone and cleansed the galaxy of clues. But here is the incredible part, According to my findings, the protheans were not the first galactic civilization who mysteriously vanished, the cycle began long before them"

"Where did you come up with this theory?" asked Shepard crossing her arms, "I thought there wasn't any evidence"

"I have been working on this for fifty years", replied Dr. T'soni, "I have tracked down every scrap and shred of evidence. Eventually, subtle patterns start to emerge, patterns that hid the truth. It is…difficult to explain to someone, I cannot point to one specific scene to prove my case. It is more of a feeling derived from half-century of dedicated research. But I know I'm right, eventually I will be able to prove it. There were other civilization before the Protheans, this cycle has repeated itself many times over"

"If the Protheans weren't the first, then who was?" asked Shepard.

"I don't know, there is barely any evidence on the Protheans, even less on those who came before them. I cannot prove my theory, but I know that I am right", replied Dr. T'soni, "The galaxy is built in a cycle of extinction. Each time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly and violently cast down, only ruins survive. The Protheans rose up from a single world until their empire spanned the entire galaxy, yet even they climbed to the top of those that came before. Their greatest achievement, the mass relays and the Citadel are based on the technology of who came before them and then, like all the other forgotten civilization throughout galactic history, the Protheans disappeared. I have dedicated my life to figure out why"

"They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines, the Reapers", stated Shepard.

"The…the Reapers?" said Dr. T'soni, startled, "I have never heard of them. How do you know this? What evidence do you have?"

"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime that burned a vision into my brain" replied Shepard, "I'm still trying to figure out what that means"

"Visions?...Yes that makes sense", said Dr. T'soni relaxing a bit, "The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user. Finding one that still works is extremely rare, no wonder the Geth attacked Eden Prime, the chance to find a working beacon, even a massive damaged one is worth almost any risk. But the beacons were only designed to interact with a Prothean physiology, whatever information you received would have been confused, unclear. I am amazed you are able to make any sense of it at all, a lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed by the process. You must be remarkably strong willed, Commander"

Ashley grimaced, "So, that attack on Eden Prime…thousands of people dead…just for that damned beacon!"

"I-I am sorry, I did not meant it that that way", replied Dr. T'soni looking flustered.

"Listen you-"

"Drop it, Williams", interrupted Shepard looking sharply at Ashley, then turned to Dr. T'soni, "I don't know why Saren wanted you out of the picture, but I think we'll be a lot better off if we bring you along"

"Thank you, Commander", said Dr. T'soni, "Saren might come after me again, I cannot think of anywhere safer than your ship and my knowledge of the Protheans might be useful later on"

"And her biotics will come in handy when the fighting starts", said Wrex.

"Good to have you on the team, Liara", said Shepard smiling.

"Thank you, I am very grateful…oh", Liara almost stumbled but caught herself, putting a hand on her forehead, "I am afraid I'm feeling a bit lightheaded"

"When was the last time you ate? Or slept?", asked Kaidan, "Dr. Chakwas should take a look at you"

"It is probably just mental exhaustion", said Liara, "Coupled with the discovery of the true fate of the Protheans. I need some time to process all this. Still, it could not hurt being examined by a medical professional, it will give me the chance to think things over. Are we finished here, Commander?"

"Yes", Shepard nodded, "We can talk again after you've seen the Doctor. The rest of you, dismissed"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie was sitting on 'his corner' again, staring at his mini mass relay. He was thinking about today's debriefing a.k.a History class. He would've slept if not for his whole aching body due to getting tackled by a Krogan and then running through the ruins simultaneously. He couldn't help but think that the Forerunners and the Protheans shared some similarities…

Both races were technologically more advanced than them. _Check_.

Both got extinct due to another alien race (Ignoring the reasons). _Check_.

Both this and his world's technology were based on the Protheans and the Forerunners respectively. _Check_.

If this Conduit turns out to be a superweapon that destroys all the life in the galaxy, which Rookie hoped it didn't, then they would share yet another similarity.

Rookie sighed, he needed to divert his mind from these depressing thoughts. So, he decided to check in on Ashley for any progress with the M7S.

Ashley turned at the sounds of the approaching footsteps, "Rookie", she greeted.

Rookie nodded in return, "Any progress?"

"Actually yes, look", Ashley gestured at her terminal, it showed a blueprint of different parts of a gun that Rookie didn't recognize, "This would be the blueprint of a submachine gun I downloaded off the Alliance's weapons database. This goes way back, almost at the time that when we started incorporating Mass accelerator systems in our weapons, these aren't really assigned to the frontline troops. Because some soldiers, unlike you, are happy with their Assault rifles. Now, take look at this…"

She pushed some buttons on the terminal and the screen shifted to show a Mass accelerator system much smaller than but similar to that of an Assault rifle.

"Turns out that an Assault rifle's Mass accelerator system is actually an upgrade of these much older models, and I think we can reverse the process", said Ashley with a glint in her eyes that Rookie had only saw in people obsessed with guns, "These guns are still used by some mercenary gangs, they're cheaper to produce and more portable than an Assault rifle but with less stopping power and accuracy and they overheat faster, so if we are to do that to your gun, we have to solve these problems. But one another problem is, we don't have an extra Assault rifle and I doubt anyone will hand over theirs willingly for our little experiment"

Without a word, Rookie went to his desk and retrieved the Geth pulse rifle that he had picked up from Therum and handed it over to Ashley.

"Now we're onto something", a wicked grin formed on her face, "I've heard that the Geth use different Mass accelerator systems, if that's true, I'll need some time study this"

Rookie nodded and left Ashley alone as she started disassembling the Geth pulse rifle. It was still days before they reach their next destination, planet Sharjila in the Macedon system. It should be ready by then.

After the previous mission in Therum, Rookie was now very low on the Sniper rifle ammo, the Requisitions officer had asked them to retrieve Titanium and Tungsten deposits the next time they would enter the surface of the planet.

As for the Mako, Rookie had grown quite fond of it and he wanted to drive it the next time they'd hit the dirt.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard entered the garage through the elevator to check on her team. She went for Garrus first and instead of him stood…

"Rookie?"

The ODST turned around at the mention of his name and gave a crisp salute.

"At ease, what are you doing here?" asked Shepard, "Where's Garrus?"

Without a word, Rookie banged the door of the Mako twice with his fist. It opened and Garrus peeked his head out, "Rookie, what do you nee- Oh, hello Shepard"

"What are you two doing?" asked Shepard.

"Maintenance work, and Rookie's helping", replied Garrus, then turned to Rookie, "By the way how're they going?"

Rookie gave him a thumbs up.

"Good", said Garrus then turned to Shepard again, "Anyway, Shepard did you need anything?"

"Do you have time to talk?" asked Shepard.

"Uh, Actually I was in the middle of some calibrations inside there, maybe later?" replied Garrus and went back inside the Mako..

"Okay", said Shepard, then turned to Rookie, "What about you?"

Rookie jerked his thumb at the console.

"You're doing calibrations too?" asked Shepard.

Rookie nodded.

Shepard frowned, "Rookie, you have a mouth. Use it"

"O-kay…?" replied Rookie somewhat awkwardly.

"Do you always, communicate like this?" asked Shepard.

Rookie shrugged.

"Hmm, we may have to change that", Shepard walked away muttering to herself.

_I don't like the sound of that._

Rookie was beginning to feel a little less uncomfortable with the aliens around. At least Garrus was a bit on the good side. Wrex…well, he didn't behave any better than the Brutes, but he was on their side 'Just for the fight', so Rookie couldn't complain. The Quarian, Tali, she never spoke to him since that alley incident, probably creeped out by him. Rookie sighed, he'd sooner or later had to go and apologize to her if they were to work together. Creeping people out is kinda fun sometimes, but with the Quarian, it might have been a little overboard.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A Few Days Later.**

**Location: Macedon System, En Route to Planet Sharjila.**

Rookie was now helping Ashley with the M7S and they were almost finished. They had used the cut down version of the Geth pulse rifle's Mass accelerator system made with the help of the blueprints of the older models of the submachine guns. They had replaced the inner barrel of the M7S and its suppressor with the one from the Geth Pulse rifle so that it would not melt on itself due to the heated Phasic rounds traveling at high speeds, they even used the Geth Pulse rifle's heat sink.

They had found out that the rate of fire of the Mass accelerator system of the Geth Pulse rifle was variable, so after hours of trial and error, they were able to set the M7S's rate of fire, the Geth pulse rifle was by far the most accurate Assault rifle Rookie had seen, so the M7S Submachine gun had retained its original accuracy while its rate of fire was slightly less than its original version but more than that of the Geth Pulse rifle, also it now heated faster than the Geth Pulse rifle, but since it used the same heat sink, it overheated far later than some of the low grade Assault rifles. As for the sound suppression, the original Geth Pulse rifle slugs already made fairly low sounds, it was further lowered by the M7S's suppressor which now made faint zapping sounds, so now only someone within two meter radius could hear the weapon firing, even the muzzle flash was greatly reduced by the suppressor. Perfect for silent kills, which was the way Rookie preferred to fight. Another change it went through was that the Phasic rounds were effective against Kinetic shields and barriers but now it had slightly less armor piercing capabilities.

Before Rookie arrived here in this world, he carried the M6 Pistol on his hip, the M7S Submachine gun on his back and the SRS99 Sniper rifle on a sling hanging by his neck which was quite uncomfortable. But now, there was enough space left inside the gun to render it collapsible like their other weapons, which took them another few hours to do so. They had to cut the gun across the appropriate cross section and apply the correct mechanism. They finished with that as well, so when the button at its rear was pressed, the front handle collapsed inside the gun and the barrel collapsed on itself which left the gun half its size. The M7S was now small enough for Rookie to attach it to his thigh.

They were finally finished and it was now renamed - The M7S Pulse Submachine gun.

"Aaand we did it!" Ashley raised her palm for a high five.

…

"Too girly, huh?" the palm turned into a fist.

…

Ashley sighed as she lowered her hand, "You completely killed the mood"

Rookie shouldered the new M7S Pulse submachine gun, getting used to the new lighter weight.

Ashley snorted, "Using the Geth's own weapon system against them, I'd like to see the look on their faces when you use that against them", she frowned, "Wait…they don't have a face…Anyway, let's test it one last time"

Rookie nodded and backed away to the far side of the garage and aimed at the human shaped target. He pressed the trigger and the M7S started shooting Pulse rounds. The rounds peppered the target, or more specifically the target's head.

"Thanks, I appreciate it", said Rookie.

"Glad you like it", replied Ashley smiling, "Cause now you owe me a drink the next time we get a shore leave"

"I don't drink", said Rookie.

"Doesn't matter, you're buying me one"

"I don't have any Credits"

Ashley sighed, "Fine, but I'll take that drink someday"

Rookie merely nodded in reply.

Then Shepard's voice came through the ship wide comm. "Ashley, Rookie and Garrus, gear up, you're the ground team for this mission"

"Good, I wanted to see the M7S in action anyway", remarked Ashley.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard yet again successfully managed to land the Mako on the dirty yellow terrain of the planet Sharjila.

"Rookie, you wanted to drive, right?" asked Shepard turning to the ODST who was riding shotgun.

Rookie eagerly bobbed his head.

"Here, let's switch seats", said Shepard unbuckling her harness and switching seats with the Rookie.

Shepard saw Rookie staring down below the steering control below his legs.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"Ma'am…why does this thing have six pedals?"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

After explaining the functions of each pedal and other controls of the Mako, Shepard gave Rookie the permission to drive. Now Rookie drove the Mako through the rough yellow terrain of Sharjila. At first they went to the location of the Tungsten deposit that they found out using the Normandy's scanners, the deposit were at scarce but enough Tungsten to supply bullets for the next few missions. After finishing with the mining and stashing the metals in the Mako's storage area, they headed for their original purpose towards the location of the Pirate base.

During all this time Rookie's passengers realized that his driving wasn't any better than Shepard's, due to unnecessary use of thrusters and barrel rolls. While Rookie learned something about the Mako – It was absolutely impossible to flip it upside down…not that he was trying to do it intentionally.

"Rookie, I see hostiles outside the base, lots of them", informed Garrus who was manning the Mako's turret.

"Then what are you waiting for? Start firing", ordered Shepard.

Garrus started blasting the hostiles with the Mako's cannon while Rookie closed the distance. Upon seeing the large vehicle approaching towards them at high speed, the pirates scattered but not before three of them were drift-splattered by the Mako as it turned and went for the other mercenaries, before they knew all the mercs outside the base were eliminated. Rookie parked the Mako outside the base, just near the door and the team got out, readying themselves for the ensuing firefight, they all took position outside the door.

"They must know that we're coming and a possibility that they're holding positions inside the doors", said Shepard, then looked at Rookie, "I'll get the door, you send in a flashbang and go in first"

Rookie nodded and took out his M7S Pulse Submachine gun and holding a Flashbang grenade on one hand. He and Shepard took positions on either side of the doors. Shepard pushed the button and Rookie sent the grenade inside, they heard several cries of pain from inside.

Then everything happened under a few seconds, Rookie and Shepard entered first. Rookie elbowed the first merc who was standing too close to the door and peppered the head of the second who was standing right behind the first one with Pulse rounds then finished the first one with a stomp in the face. While Shepard finished her two with a combination of biotics and Shotgun blasts.

They proceeded inside with Garrus and Ashley in their six. They saw that the room inside was filled with crates. They easily cleared the base of the mercs. The mercs stood no chance against an ODST, a N7 marine who was also a Spectre, a well trained Alliance marine and a C-sec officer. They had found out that Nassana Dantius had lied to them about her sister being captured who actually was leading the mercs that they had encountered in the base.

But this mission proved to be a good place to test the M7S Pulse Submachine gun, and it had performed pretty well. They returned to the Normandy, but not before salvaging the dead mercs of weapons and equipment.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A Week Later**

Shepard was sitting in front of her console inside her cabin, writing an E-mail to the Alliance officials for the delivery of a new Mako.

'_Damn Rookie, I told him to pull back…_', Shepard thought rubbing her forehead with her hand.

"_Commander, Admiral Hackett is on the Comm. line_", said Joker over the comm.

"Patch him through my console Joker", replied Shepard, regaining her composure.

"_Commander Shepard_", greeted Admiral Hackett as his voice came from her console.

"Admiral", replied Shepard curtly.

"_First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on becoming the first Human Spectre_", said Hackett.

"Thank you, sir"

Hackett then proceeded to tell Shepard of a rouge VI on the Military training base on Luna, and that they needed her to deal with it.

"I'll do it, sir", said Shepard, "We were headed towards the Arctarus station anyway"

"_Do you mind me asking why_?" asked Hackett curiously.

"To collect a new Mako, sir", replied Shepard, "The old one is now…beyond repair"

"_And what happened to it_?"

"I'll show you", Shepard sent him a Holo image.

There was silence on the other side of the comm. for a few seconds before the Admiral's voice came again.

"…_What am I exactly looking at, Commander_?" asked Hackett, who seemed to try his best to keep his voice neutral.

"You won't believe me if I told you, sir", replied Shepard.

"_I think I have time to hear about this_"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**Earlier That Day**

"Why does Rookie gets to drive again? His driving puts yours to shame, Shepard", shouted Garrus over the sound of the Mako's engines.

"Don't worry, this is the last time he drives", Shepard smirked, "So, relax"

They were on the surface of the planet Edolus in the Sparta system to investigate the distress call that originated from the planet. On their way, they had found a small deposit of Titanium and now they were headed for the distress signal

"Rookie, I see a lone destroyed M29 Grizzly and several bodies around it", informed Garrus, "I don't like it, be carefu-"

A Thresher Maw suddenly burst out of the ground as they neared the destroyed Grizzly.

"Whoa! Rookie! Stay clear of that Thresher Maw and let Garrus take it out with the turret", ordered Shepard.

Rookie complied and started circling the beast while Garrus started blasting it with the Mako's turret. Every once the Maw would go underground and change its location in order to close the distance between itself and the Mako, but Rookie even with his driving had been avoiding it so far.

Then suddenly it burst out of the ground…right in front of the Mako which was almost at its top speed.

"Pull back! Pull back!" yelled Shepard.

Rookie hit the brakes…or what he thought was a brake...he had actually pushed the thrusters, and the Mako flew…

…Right into the Thresher Maw's mouth. Now the Mako was forced halfway inside the beast's mouth which was not big enough to swallow it, while the Mako's rear was still outside. The Maw started flailing the Mako around wildly trying desperately to get the vehicle out of its mouth.

"Garrus! What are you doing! Start shooting!" yelled Shepard.

"Shepard! I can't shoot! The turret's melted!" Garrus shouted back.

Rookie was desperately stomping every pedal of the Mako.

The Maw started making strange huffing noises. It had stopped flailing the Mako around and it was standing vertically, still halfway inside its mouth.

A final huff…

Then the Maw fell with a loud crash.

"Is it over?" asked Garrus cautiously, "Are we dead?"

"It has stopped moving", said Shepard, "Let's try and get outside"

They managed get outside from the rear doors of the Mako, as soon as they were out they ran a good distance from the Thresher Maw until they were out of breaths.

"Well, that ruined my day", Shepard announced as she sat on a rock, "Nice work Garrus"

"Shepard…I never fired a round inside that thing, the turret was melted", said Garrus.

"…Then what happened to it?"

"Spirits…Commander, I think we…choked it to death"

Rookie felt the incredulous stares of his team mates directed at him.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

"…So that's about it", said Shepard, "What you're looking at is a Thresher Maw choked to death by the Mako"

…

"Sir? Are you there?"

"_Yes I am, Shepard…I'd never have believed it if I didn't see it for myself_"

"Me neither, sir" replied Shepard.

"_Anyway, I have to go. But I'd like to interview this dimension traveling soldier that you have on your crew once you get here at the Arctarus station, Hackett out_"

…

Wait…

She never told Hackett that Rookie came here by dimension traveling.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N:** And in the next chapter they visit the Arctarus station, as if that isn't obvious enough.

And this was just once that I did two side missions. I may do more, but not all of them.

Till next time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Mass Effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 12 – Keep It Brief**

"_This is Commander Shepard speaking, we are now only a few minutes away from the Arcturus station. We'll be staying there for as long as it takes us to restock, refuel and to receive a new Mako. Now I suppose many of the crew members would want to visit the station to see their friends or relatives, they can do so but are to report back on the Normandy as soon as they receive the message, we won't be staying there longer than necessary. As for our non-human crew members, I'm sorry to say but you are restricted to this ship until our stay. This is an Alliance military space station and I don't think they'll appreciate aliens hanging around. That is all_"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Moments later Shepard entered the garage wearing her Alliance officer's uniform instead of her usual fatigues. She went to inform the Rookie about their little interview with Admiral Hackett.

"Rookie", Shepard said as she approached him.

The ODST turned around at the mention of his name and gave a crisp salute.

"Come with me, there's someone we need to meet", said Shepard.

Rookie regarded her for a moment before nodding. He then turned back and grabbed the mini mass relay from the locker and kept it inside one of his ammo pockets.

"Why are you taking that with you?" asked Shepard.

"That Admiral would want to see this after I explain myself", replied Rookie.

…

"Wait, how did you know that we're going to meet an Admiral?" asked Shepard raising an eyebrow, only she knew about this meeting, nobody else.

"That's quite obvious…" was the only reply.

"Okay, and how did you know that he knows your secret?"

…

Shepard sighed, "Anyway his name is Admiral Hackett and we have to meet him as soon as we dock"

Rookie nodded and followed Shepard as she took the lead.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The Arcturus station's design looked more like that of a giant spaceship than a space station with hundreds of Alliance warships patrolling around it. Shepard and Rookie stood just behind Joker's seat as the pilot called the Arcturus station for getting clearance for docking. As soon as they got the permission, the Normandy docked at one of the docking stations. Shepard and Rookie were the first to exit the airlock. The docking area was quite deserted save for the few people working there.

"Let's wait here, someone will come and lead us to where this meeting will take place", said Shepard when they reached the bottom of the ramp.

A moment later they saw many of the Normandy crew leave the airlock to go about their own business, even Ashley and Dr. Chakwas, alongside Kaidan who was supporting Joker by the shoulder as they walked towards Shepard and Rookie.

"Commander, Joker knows a cafeteria where they serve beers", said Kaidan, "We were hoping you'd join us, Rookie you too"

"Sorry Lieutenant, we need to be somewhere", replied Shepard, "After we're finished we will join you"

"Where are you two going?" asked Ashley.

"Admiral Hackett wanted to see us" replied Shepard.

"Aw man, don't tell me that the creepy guy gets a medal for the scientific discovery he did a few days ago", said Joker.

"What scientific discovery?" asked Shepard.

"That the Thresher maws breathe through their mouth"

That got out a few chuckles from the crew.

"No, it's nothing like that" replied Shepard suppressing her own chuckle "But it may take some time, so you all should go, we'll catch up with you all later if we can"

"Okay, Skipper", replied Ashley and they all left.

"What a fun bunch", Shepard remarked looking at Rookie.

…

"Our 'escorts' should be here any moment", she said, "But one thing though, I still don't know who told Hackett about you"

"Captain Anderson", replied Rookie.

"Now how the hell do you know _that_?"

…

"Commander Shepard?" a voice came from behind them.

They both turned around and saw four armed marines, all of them saluted.

"At ease", ordered Shepard, "Are you the escorts?"

"Yes ma'am", replied one of the marines, "Please follow us to the meeting room, it's not very far from here", he said and took the lead with the other marine while Shepard and Rookie were in the middle, followed by the other two marines.

They walked for quite a while through a series of various corridors and hallways, many people stopped and saluted and watched in awe at the first human Spectre as they walked past them. They turned around one last corned after walking past a quite long hallway before they arrived at what seemed to be a high security zone, after getting clearance from the checkpoint, the marines stopped in front of a door.

"Please step inside, the Admiral is waiting for both you", said one of the marines.

They both did so, the room that they entered was apparently quite small for a meeting room and had a dull blue lighting with a big rectangular table in the centre and several chairs around it, a single window located on the wall farthest from them, a door by the adjacent wall from the window from which much of the station could be seen, ships in the distances looked like small specs, by the window stood a man in an Admiral's uniform which they assumed was Admiral Hackett himself, the man's hair was graying but he stood rigid, he clearly looked a man with years of experience.

"Commander Shepard, Lance Corporal D*****", Hackett greeted as they approached him.

They both saluted in response.

"You don't have to salute me, Shepard. You are a Spectre now", said Hackett offering a hand to Shepard.

"You wanted to see us, Admiral?" asked Shepard shaking his hand.

"Yes I did", Hackett replied, "I wanted to talk personally with the Corporal here"

"Sir, if I may ask, how do you know about him being from another dimension?" asked Shepard.

"Your former Commanding officer, Captain Anderson told me about him", replied Hackett, "I was the one who authorized to classify his file"

"Okay", said Shepard sparing a glance at Rookie, "What did you wanted to ask Admiral"

"Honestly, I wanted to hear everything that Anderson told me from the Corporal himself", replied Hackett.

"Fair enough", said Shepard looking at Rookie, "Rookie, would you tell the Admiral everything you told us?"

Rookie nodded.

"And Corporal, please remove your helmet, while you do so", said Hackett.

Rookie looked at Shepard, she nodded in reply.

He sighed, There was no denying an Admiral. So he removed his helmet.

It was the first time Shepard had seen Rookie's face, the first thing she saw was a hint of irritation to the otherwise neutral expression, the second thing that stood out was the his really pale face that showed in contrast to the dark room and his black armor, probably due to wearing the helmet all the time.

Rookie started his explanation from the beginning, exactly what he had told to Shepard and the others while the Admiral listened patiently. During the explanation, Shepard observed that Rookie's eyes kept darting towards the window.

"Can I see that 'Mini mass relay' as you call it?" Hackett asked after Rookie finished.

Rookie turned his head towards Shepard and gave her the 'I told you so' look, then took out the Artifact from his pocket and handed it to the Admiral.

Hackett looked skeptic, "This doesn't look more than a piece of crafted metal, are you sure this is the thing that bought you here?"

Rookie nodded.

"If you think so" said Hackett, "So Corporal, what are your plans for your stay?"

"For now, to assist Commander Shepard to stop Saren", Rookie replied.

"I can vouch for him, Admiral", said Shepard, "He seems to be well trained and can hold for himself quite well in a battlefield"

"I see, so what would be the current date in your world?" asked Hackett.

_What the_-

"2553"

The Admiral raised one of his eyebrows, "Hmm, I assume there must be a few technological differences between our and your world"

Rookie nodded and narrowed his eyes at the window, '_That ship just docked 30 seconds ago_'

"So, would you mind sharing anything that would help the Alliance?" asked Hackett

"Sir, I'm a Soldier, not a scientist", replied Rookie returning his attention to the Admiral

"I understand", the Admiral replied, "Another question, how many planets do your people currently possess?"

"A handful", Rookie replied glancing again towards the window.

"Can you give us the exact count?" asked the Admiral.

Rookie shook his head.

"And how many did your people managed to colonize before the war?" asked Hackett.

"More than eight hundred"

Shepard's eyes widened, "What! Eight hundred? And those aliens killed off every single human living on those planets?"

Even Admiral Hackett looked shocked from the revelation, "My god, and you say that you now have only a few planets left to live?"

Rookie nodded.

"What a disaster…", Hackett looked thoughtful, "Hmm, I think now I understand your motivation behind helping the Commander…". His omni tool chimed, he looked at it for a moment then said, "Excuse me for a moment". Then the Admiral turned around and started studying something on it to himself.

Shepard saw Rookie slightly bent sideways to see the Admiral's omni tool. A look of realization formed on his face. She did the same, the only word she could make out on the Admiral's omni tool was the word 'Result'.

'_Wait, 'Result'? The seemingly random questions? And Rookie seems to suspect something about the window…I think I know what's going on here_', Shepard now fully realized what was going on and by the looks of Rookie's face, he had found out about it too.

"Results from the lie detector, sir?" asked Shepard.

Hackett turned around, if he was surprised he didn't give it away, "Ah, so you figured it out", he turned towards the window, "Captain, get down here. I don't think we need to keep this a secret"

The window, which until now showed the exterior of the station slowly faded and revealed a room behind it. The room was filled with many devices that Shepard had seen before, the devices used in interrogation to determine if the person in question is telling the truth, the lie detector which didn't even require a physical contact with the person. A lone one figure sat among the machinery, he stood up and exited the room through the other door.

_A Holo projector disguised as a window that hid the room behind it._

Captain Anderson exited through the door adjacent from the 'Window' and stood beside Admiral Hackett.

"I assume you both already know what's going on?" asked Hackett.

"We do, sir, but can you please explain why you did this?" asked Shepard.

"I'm sorry Commander, but Admiral Hackett wanted to make this sure himself after I told him about Rookie" said Anderson.

"I apologize, Corporal, if this seems wrong to you somehow", said Hackett, "But, look at this our way. While your evidence does support you, we couldn't just blindly believe everything you say, we did need some kind of confirmation. But I have to admit that talking to you was enough, we didn't needed the lie detector to say that you were telling the truth"

Rookie nodded, "I understand"

"Everything the Corporal told us was the truth, asides from the obvious lies about the details of the war", said Anderson.

"That's understandable", Hackett turned towards Shepard, "Thank you both for your time. I hope this didn't intervene with your current assignment, Commander"

"No, it didn't Admiral", replied Shepard, "I hope that you're satisfied by now about Rookie and his intentions"

"Yes, we are", replied the Admiral, "You may go, we won't take any of your precious time. Thank you again and good luck with your mission, Commander"

Shepard and Rookie both saluted the two superiors and left the room.

"So much for a small interview", Shepard remarked after they left the interrogation room, "So, tell me how did you figure everything out?"

Rookie just shrugged as he put back his helmet on.

Shepard's eyes narrowed, "No, you're not dodging it this time. Let's go to the nearby cafeteria, you can explain everything to me there. Rest of the crew must've finished by now"

Rookie sighed and followed Shepard as she took the lead.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

They found a cafeteria and took a seat in the far corner. That barely helped since people still frequently glanced at their direction. After much persuasion by Shepard, Rookie finally and surprisingly agreed to remove his helmet and have a cup of coffee.

"Let's start from the beginning. How did you know that we were going to meet Admiral Hackett?" asked Shepard sipping from her own cup of coffee.

"I didn't knew his name", Rookie began, "But the fact that we were going to meet a high ranked officer, preferably an Admiral was obvious from your uniform"

"And how did you know that the Admiral knew your secret?" asked Shepard.

"An Admiral would only meet a lower ranked soldier like me if it was a matter of great importance. In my case either to give me a medal for the scientific discovery or if he knew about my secret", replied Rookie, "The former was unlikely"

"Right, how did you know that Captain Anderson told Admiral Hackett about your secret?" asked Shepard.

"Only four people knew about me", Rookie began, "And only higher ranked officers have a direct contact with an Admiral, which leaves Gunny and LT out of the question. Then you told me that you didn't know who told the Admiral about me, so that leaves…"

"Captain Anderson", Shepard finished for him, "Huh, it makes sense when you put it like that. One last question, how did you know about the 'window' and the lie detector? I saw you, you had found about that before me"

"The length of the room was comparatively small to the length of the hallway that we walked around to reach the meeting room", said Rookie, "At first I thought it was probably the design. But then there was the 'window' which stuck me as odd and the last straw was when I saw the video on the 'window' loop after every 30 seconds"

"I see", Shepard smiled, "I have to say, I'm impressed. Didn't figure you out to be on the smart side"

Rookie gave her a weird look.

"I meant that as a compliment", said Shepard.

Her omni tool chimed, she looked at the message then looked up to the Rookie to see that he had finished drinking his coffee and had put his helmet back on.

"It was a message from Pressly", said Shepard, "They have finished the paperwork and we have the new Mako, let's go"

Rookie sighed in relief. The barrage of questions was finally over.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A Few Days Later.**

**Location:**

**Local Cluster,**

**The Solar System,**

**Earth's Moon, Luna.**

Shepard and the team had obliterated the Sentry turrets with the help of the new Mako that they picked up from the Arcturus station. Their current mission was to disable a rouge AI in an Alliance training ground. When they arrived at the Training grounds they found out that there were three underground bases. So, Shepard called the Normandy which had dropped the whole ground team. They all came out, pressurizing their Hardsuits. One of the few upgrades that Rookie's ODST Battle armor had undergone was the extra air supply, he could now perform EVA way longer than just fifteen minutes, so running out of oxygen was not a big issue unless he remained like that for too long.

"Okay, listen up, there are three bases. We're all gonna take them at the same time. The objective is simple, go in, eliminate any defenses and then destroy the VI conduits, expect turrets, lots of turrets and be careful, Alliance marines have attempted to take those bases without any success, but I trust you all to get the job done", Shepard explained, "We're splitting in three teams. Me and Alenko are going to take the first base, Ashley, Garrus and Wrex will take the second base and Rookie and Tali will take the third base, are we clear?"

They all looked at each other. Shepard obviously had paired together the ones that get along the least with each other.

Rookie shrugged, he didn't have any problem with the Quarian, she had problems with him.

"Are we clear?" Shepard repeated more sternly.

She got the response in the form of "Yes, Shepard" and "Yes, ma'am" over the comm.

"So, let's get to it", ordered Shepard and pushed the button for the elevator of her base.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Tali pressed the button to call the elevator that led to the underground base. She saw the armored human that they called 'Rookie'. She had never seen him without his armor.

_Was he even a human_? _Why did Shepard have to send her with him anyway_?

The human nodded at her, readying his Submachine gun.

Tali prepared her own shotgun and shook off those thoughts, they had a mission to complete. The door opened and they both stepped inside, Tali pressed another button and the elevator began its descent. They both remained silent throughout the descent.

_Does he never speak_?

Tali decided to give it a try, "Are you ready?" she asked.

Rookie nodded in reply.

Tali sighed, '_Strange human._ _Of course he nods, how inspiring_'

The elevator stopped and the doors opened to reveal an empty chamber with dull lighting.

Rookie and Tali both proceeded with caution scanning the room with their weapons.

"I'm detecting many hostiles in the next room", informed Tali.

Rookie pressed the button by the door. It opened and they say many crates of different size, most of them blocking the view of the next area. The crates were arranged in such a manner that they opened in two different narrow openings.

"I don't think they saw us", Tali whispered, "But there are too many of them, what do you think we should do?"

She was right, the VI controlled turrets had really strong firepower, they couldn't just run and gun, they needed a plan.

Rookie took out his grenades and set them on one of the openings and then did the same with the second opening. Tali understood what he was doing and deployed her own tech mines on both the openings.

"Okay, I'm done", Tali whispered.

Rookie signaled her to take position at one opening while he did the same at the other opening. Then he whistled, which echoed throughout the room.

Tali saw hostiles moving towards their position. She readied her omni tool and waited for the first turret to appear, Rookie did the same and readied his submachine gun.

Rookie saw a lone turret turn around a corner, it was tripod mounted and seemed to hover above the ground, they couldn't waste the entire trap on one turret, so he fired. The M7S quickly chipped away its shields and destroyed the turret on its tracks.

Tali did the next best thing, she hacked the first turret that showed up, luckily for her, it was a rocket turret.

"They're all coming!" Tali yelled as she saw most of the turrets inside the room rush at their position.

They all Zerg rushed at their position, just as Rookie expected. He and Tali both double backed towards their cover.

At least seven turrets showed up at Rookie's position and about the same at Tali's position. Rookie pressed the detonator and the trap exploded in a brilliant shower of synthetic parts. Rookie then came out of his cover and indicated Tali to do the same. They, along with her hacked turret inspected each of the destroyed ones.

Then suddenly a crate in the middle of the two openings exploded, which was revealed to be fired from another rocket turret, it was not alone as there were a few more turrets left, it fired another rocket straight towards Tali. She brought the hacked turret in front herself to protect herself, but the resulting explosion took out the hacked rocket turret and sent her flying backwards, the grip of her shotgun loosened and it too flew away. The rocket turret fired another rocket at Tali.

Tali felt two hands on her arms and saw herself dragged towards the cover. The rocket exploded harmlessly where she had been seconds ago.

Rookie didn't wait for a thanks from Tali as he dashed across halfway across the room getting the attention of the turret on himself and took cover behind a crate. Tali saw him kick her shotgun which slided across the floor towards her, she promptly grabbed it while Rookie blindfired from his cover.

Rookie then pointed towards one of the disabled Rocket turrets, looking at Tali.

Tali saw the turret and replied, "It's too damaged and it's missing one of its three supports"

Rookie then bent, put a boot one the two 'legs' of the turret and ripped it off its supports and hefted the rocket turret clutching it with both his hands, he had done this many times before, but with different kinds of turrets.

Tali stared at him in awe, 'Keelah, Now _that's_ amazing', she hacked it with her omni tool and when she finished, she said, "Just point the turret towards them and I'll fire the rockets"

Rookie nodded in reply and whirled the rocket turret towards the hostiles, while Tali activated the turret which fired rockets, decimating the hostiles in seconds. They both teamworked their way through the room, Rookie pointing the turret towards the hostiles while Tali fired it, they had finally destroyed the stragglers within the room.

They had cleared the room and came across a T shaped corridor which led to different rooms, they went in the first room and destroyed the four VI conduits with ease. Then they went towards the last room, as soon as they opened the door they saw a rocket rush towards them, they barely managed to dodge it as Rookie pressed himself against the wall, while Tali ducked to avoid the rocket and fired the rocket towards the three new hostile turrets that had activated, quickly destroying them.

Seeing no other hostiles, Rookie dropped the rocket turret and offered a hand to her.

Tali considered that for a moment, '_He may not speak, but doesn't seem like a bad person after all_', so she took the hand and got up and chuckled, "That was too easy"

They destroyed the other remaining VI conduits and then headed back towards the surface, which too went in silence. When they reached the surface they saw Shepard and Kaidan, who had finished before them standing near the Mako waiting for them.

Tali walked towards them and told Shepard about the turn of events.

"So, I assume you two won't have any problems working together from now on?" asked Shepard.

Tali shrugged, "I guess not. Right Rookie?" she turned around and saw Rookie leaned against the elevator staring at the landscape, "How the…?"

"You didn't realize that he never followed you here?" Shepard smirked under her helmet, "He tends to have that effect"

Shepard walked towards Rookie.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

"So, this is your home, right?" Shepard asked through the comm. standing beside Rookie.

…

"Well, if this gives you any closure, then take your time, we're waiting", said Shepard.

"Thanks…"

Shepard nodded and went back towards where they were loading the Mako back inside the Normandy's garage.

The Rookie just stood there leaning against one of the elevators that led to the underground base, staring at the landscape that was his home, technically. Even if it wasn't his real home, it did give him some consolation, this was the place where he had spent his childhood after all. The ODSTs were quite the busiest of any members of the UNSC, they were needed everywhere, even more so than the marines. It must have been months since he last visited his birthplace, months before he last had a shore leave. But it doesn't really matter…

Besides, quoting Dutch, 'Shore leave is for pussies'

Rookie grimaced as he remembered his teammates, since their first mission, they had become close to each other. Even Romeo, who was quite disliked by most people who knew him, had gone soft on his own teammates. Even Rookie himself liked the people that he used to work with and whom he could call friends.

Buck, Romeo, Mickey, Dutch and the Rookie, they were brothers in arms.

But now, since Rookie 'died', probably along with many others that came in initial assault on the Covenant outposts. They must have already gotten a replacement for him, it was a harsh truth that he had to live with.

He shook the depressing thoughts out of his mind, there was no need to think like that. He just needed to hold on to the hope that he was going to return home someday…somehow.

For now he just wanted to delve in the memories of his home.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N:** So, we got to see the clever side of the Rookie (You know, Deducing stuff about the meeting), that's because he's _supposed_ to be like that. In Halo 3 ODST he managed to find the whereabouts of his squad with the help of random objects left behind by them (Dare's helmet, Romeo's sniper rifle, etc.) and some broken radio transmissions (With superintendent's help of course, but still), which must mean he has quite a sharp mind, that's what I think anyway.

And forget the name I mentioned earlier, Rookie's name will be censored. Besides it'll be mentioned very rarely, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

"Great, you made him talk too much again", you say? There wasn't two ways about it. Besides, Rookie was talking to Commander freakin' Shepard! She can make anyone talk. But that did tell you how Rookie knew everything first hand. Rookie talking too much will also rarely happen in the future, but with a good reason if it does.

Next up is Feros.

Also, Keep those Reviews coming, keeps me glued to this. Even those Favorites and Alerts :D

I love you guys!

Till next time.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **Sorry for the long delay, I barely manage to make time to write these days.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 13 – Feros**

**Part 1 - Errands**

"Zhu's Hope this is SSV Normandy requesting permission to dock"

"A-are you Alliance? Are you here to help?"

"Uh, yes"

"Thank god! Permission granted Normandy"

"Is something wrong?"

"We are under Geth attack and we need help, you should probably talk to Fai Dan for more details. He's our leader"

"You could at least tell me-"

"You should talk to Fai Dan"

"Hey, you don't have to be a-"

"Speak with Fai Dan", the line was dead from the other side.

Joker sighed and leaned back on his seat, "Man, this reception sucks", he said giving a sideways glance at Shepard who was standing behind his seat.

"That _was_ rather strange", Shepard mused, "Tell Alenko and Tali to gear up and meet me at the airlock"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**30 Minutes Later…**

"Hey Rookie, wake up!"

Garrus shook Rookie by the shoulders, he stopped when Rookie stirred.

"Let's go, Shepard wants us groundside", Garrus informed and walked towards Ashley to collect his weapons.

Rookie sighed, '_A guy can't get a decent nap around here_'

He got up, picked up his SRS99 and several magazines, then went to collect his pistol and M7S from Ashley who maintained them. Garrus, Liara and Wrex were too standing around the Gunnery Chief to collect their weapons. Rookie could hear Ashley explaining Liara about a grenade as he approached them.

"…And when you press this button, Mr. Grenade is not our friend", Ashley explained.

Wrex snorted, "Who needs grenades when you can kill people with your mind?"

"Still, it won't hurt to keep them just in case", Garrus suggested picking some grenades for himself.

"Thank you, Chief". Liara replied, "But I do not think that I will need a grenade, a pistol will be sufficient"

"Suit yourself", Ashley said and handed a pistol to Liara.

Garrus, Liara and Wrex collected their respective weapons and left for the airlock.

"T'soni seems to be a nice kid, if you can call her that", Ashley remarked handing Rookie his weapons.

…

"What? Don't look at me like that. Shepard ordered me to play nice with the aliens, it's not easy and sometimes I do want to strangle 'em, but I'm trying" said Ashley shrugging, "So, tell me, do you buy her story about her not talking to her mother for years? I mean they're family right?"

Rookie nodded reply.

"I don't really know. She sounds like…you know, a kid, even if she's old enough to be my grandma and she doesn't sounds like someone who would lie about something like that…Or anything for that matter", said Ashley shrugging, "Hey, I have an idea, let's ask her about her sex life, might be illuminating"

Rookie shook his head.

"Aw c'mon, you're no fun", Ashley said teasingly.

Rookie shrugged as they entered the elevator. He was just glad that she didn't ask him the same thing.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The dock, which was built among the Prothean ruins didn't had much color scheme aside from gray and black. It was a mess, there were telltale signs of gunfight everywhere. Human blood and white Geth fluids were splattered on the walls along with bullet holes.

"So, what's the deal chief? Why did Shepard call us out for?" Garrus asked as the ground team along with Doctor Chakwas and some marines left the airlock of the Normandy.

"The colony we're going to is under constant Geth attack, the Commander wants some of us to defend it", Ashley replied.

"Ha! Finally, we get to fight some Geth", one of the marines said.

"Let's see if you say the same when they shoot your ass with pulse rounds", Wrex said in a dry tone.

The group finally arrived at the Zhu's Hope, the colony's condition was even worse than the docks. The border was defended by injured otherwise tired security personnel. There were even freshly dug graves on the far corner of the colony. After asking the colonists for directions the group arrived on the back of the colony where Shepard, Kaidan and Tali were standing along with a middle aged man and a woman who looked like a security guard.

Shepard took a step towards them, "Team, we just repelled a Geth attack on this colony. They're gone for now, but I can't trust those synthetics to not make another push. So we're gonna split up and defend this colony. Williams, I want you and some marines at the entrance of this colony. Garrus, take some marines and defend the area with the freighter controls. Alenko, you do the same, go down the elevator and defend the garage. Doctor Chakwas and Liara, I'll need you to take care of the wounded"

After a chorus of "Aye Aye, ma'am" from the crew, they left for their designated jobs.

"How long do we have to hold on here, Commander?" the security guard named Arcelia asked, "We can't hold this position much longer and you'll be on you way for your mission, since you're not really interested with our problems"

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll run out of Geth", Shepard replied with a touch of sarcasm.

Arcelia scowled at the Commander which she promptly ignored.

"As for you three", Shepard said turning to Rookie, Wrex and Tali, "I'm going to stay here and organize the other defenses. I'll also have to check up on the others once we're all settled. Fai Dan, the 'leader' of this colony told me that there were other problems that the colonists had. Rookie, go with Wrex and Tali, _Talk_ with the colonists, see what problems they have and attend to those matters. Once you're done, we can continue with our mission", she said laying emphasis on the word 'Talk'.

"But-"

"You wanna switch with me?" Shepard cut Rookie off before he could protest.

Rookie considered the option before slowly shaking his head.

"That's what I thought", Shepard said with a satisfied smile on her face which immediately disappeared as she came closer to Rookie and spoke in a low voice, "And while you're at it, see what you can figure out about these colonists, they have been acting strangely and I suspect it's not just because of the fatigue"

Rookie nodded and beckoned Wrex and Tali to follow him as he walked towards Fai Dan to provide assistance.

_Wait…_

**Flashback…**

"Rookie, you have a mouth. Use it", said Shepard.

"O-kay…?" replied Rookie somewhat awkwardly.

"Do you always, communicate like this?" asked Shepard.

Rookie shrugged.

"Hmm, we may have to change that", Shepard walked away muttering to herself.

**End Flashback.**

…

Rookie sighed, '_Yeah…she did this on purpose_'.

"Commander said that she would send a team to help us with our problems, are you the ones?" asked Fai Dan as Rookie followed by Tali and Wrex approached him.

Rookie nodded.

"Oh, good. We have Geth in the tunnels, they are likely guarding a transmitter to coordinate attacks", said Fai Dan, "We also have some other mundane problems like food, water and power. You should ask the ones responsible for them"

Rookie nodded and turned to leave. They entered the downed freighter that the colonists were using as shelter. Rookie could hear Doctor Chakwas talking to an old woman, probably a patient, he stopped to listen.

"With a little rest you should be fine, it's probably just fatigue", said Dr. Chakwas.

"But…I should tell them…they should know", the woman frowned and massaged her forehead as if in pain, "I-I mean they're important", she sighed, "That's feels better"

"When did these migraines start?" asked Dr. Chakwas.

"It's been like this since the last…attack", the old woman replied.

"She isn't harmed physically, but something is causing her problems", Tali observed.

Wrex scoffed, "Who cares? Let's finish whatever we came to do here and leave"

"I overheard you talking. What did you come to do here?" a man asked walking up to them.

"We're supposed to help you people with those problems related to food, water and power shortages", said Tali.

"Ah, good thing that I found you then", the man said, "My name's Davin Reynolds, I'm responsible for those food rations and organizing hunts. But it's too dangerous. All because of that Alpha varren, it's crazy, rabid and has killed a few of the colonists sent out for hunt. If you take care of that Alpha varren our problem will be solved. As for the power and water shortages you should talk to the ones responsible, they're just outside"

Rookie nodded turned to leave.

"Alpha varren, now that's a fight I'm looking forward to, things just got a lot more interesting", Wrex said excitedly, flexing his muscles.

Rookie exited the freighter and came across a woman working on a generator, the woman got up upon hearing the sounds of their footsteps.

"Nice work with the Geth, but I will need some power cells to get this generator running though", the woman said.

"Can you tell us what kind of power cells do you need? I may be able to help you", said Tali.

The woman nodded, "Yeah sure", she and Tali started talking about things neither Rookie nor Wrex understood.

Wrex went and leaned against a pipe when another woman working on a console nearby noticed it.

"Hey, you should get off the pipe, it's already not working and I don't want any unnecessary damage done to it", the woman said.

Wrex glared at her but backed off when he saw Rookie shaking his head at him.

"Hey Macha these people are here to help us deal with those problems", said the woman who was working on the generator.

"Oh, uh, well, the water supply has gone dry", Macha said shifting uncomfortably under Wrex's glare, "There are a number of consoles that run throughout the tunnels that control the flow of water, they must be closed. They're probably done manually by the Geth. I'd appreciate it if you could restart them"

Rookie nodded.

"I know what type of power cells to look for", Tali said walking up to Rookie, "We should go"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie, Wrex and Tali walked carefully through the tunnels with Rookie taking point with his M7S drawn.

"Hostiles!" Tali yelled as they turned around the corner.

Rookie dived for cover as he barely managed to dodge a shotgun carnage shot. He quickly shot the two Geth troopers at the far end of the tunnel ignoring Wrex who charged ahead and tackled a Geth destroyer head on crippling it and finishing it with a shotgun blast while Tali overloaded two Geth troopers.

Tali found a console that was blocking the water pipeline, they activated it again. When they finished, they advanced through the tunnels again, Rookie saw a path that led to another separate tunnel, so he went towards it.

The tunnel that they came to was larger but was also filled with Geth. The two Geth turrets started firing at the squad as soon as they saw them, while a few Geth troopers advanced towards them, Rookie Tali and Wrex took cover.

Tali had by now trusted Rookie enough to follow his lead, he was not as good as Shepard herself but he did had a good plan the last time that they went together in a mission, he must've had a plan this time too. She looked at him.

Rookie gave the signal to fire at will.

"Oh, keelah", Tali facepalmed.

Rookie switched to his sniper rifle and blew the two Geth turrets, as soon as he was done, Wrex again charged ahead tackling the Geth troopers and crushing them under his foot, three Krogans suddenly barged from the other room, one of them ran straight for the Rookie, he slid across the floor just in time to avoid the Krogan's swinging punch, the Krogan turned around, but Rookie was faster.

CRACK!

CRACK!

The Krogan fell with two new holes on his head. Tali and Wrex were finished as well. They advanced further into the next room where they finally found the Geth Transmitter. After destroying the transmitter they returned to where they turned and tried the other path. The next tunnel was relativity empty save for the two more water pipeline consoles, which Tali activated. At the end of the tunnel they came across a lone man.

"You want to go down there", the man warned Rookie as the squad approached him.

Rookie looked at Tali and nodded towards the man.

"Are you one of the colonists? What are you doing here?" Tali asked.

"Nothing I should be, anything I shouldn't…ARGH!" the man bent over clutching his head in pain, "Ha! That was a good one, very intense"

Tali was startled at the man's reaction but collected herself, "Are you…okay?"

"I'm fine, just invoking the master's whip", the man replied, "Helps me remind that I'm still alive"

"You are here for the Geth aren't you?" the man asked, "You're not the only one looking for those…things"

"What do you mean?"

"There's a Thorn to the side of the—AAIEEEE!—trying to get to the…" the man screamed again but suddenly started to laugh madly.

"He's lost", Wrex said shaking his head, "You should just eat him"

"Look, calm down, we can help you, we have medics back at the colony", said Tali.

"Help me? No one can help me now…I rather die fighting!" the man started to fall but was caught by the Rookie who helped him sit on the floor leaning against the wall.

"Fight what?" asked Tali.

"Not that kind of fight. It's like running through a thorn bush. The more you struggle…" the man looked past them, "Time's up, company's coming. Ask Fai Dan, ask him about the—AAAAAGH!"

"Look out! More Geth!" Wrex warned.

Two Geth troopers had snuck up on them which were quickly got ridden of.

Tali shot the dead Geth with two more shotgun blasts, "You had it coming, you Bosht'et!"

Rookie shook his head in disbelief, '_Corpse-Mocking? Seriously?_'

He went to help the man but saw him sitting in a fetal position.

"No! Leave me here. I'm not going back there until you get rid of the—ARGH!" the man screamed for sometime then sat in silence staring blankly at the space ahead.

Rookie observed the man for a moment before beckoning Tali and Wrex to follow him. They started to backtrack towards the colony when Tali stopped them when they came across an unfamiliar door.

"Look! We haven't seen where this leads, maybe we should check it out?" Tali suggested.

Rookie nodded and took point, they moved carefully inside when they heard several growls.

"Ha! At last, the varren! Kill them all but spare the alpha varren for me!" Wrex shouted as he barged into the room.

The squad started shooting the varren, there were too many of them but they quickly went down as the squad shot their unshielded and unarmored bodies. Rookie was suddenly thrown away, his M7S slipping away from his hand, he was pinned down by the biggest varren he'd ever seen, its red eyes almost seemed to glow in the dark. Rookie desperately held on to the alpha varren's enormous jaws with his hands to prevent it from closing around his neck, the varren was already kicking and scratching on his armor violently. He finally managed to throw the varren away from him. He barely managed to get on his knees when he saw the varren coming for him again, there was no time to take out a firearm, so he took out his combat knife. The varren lunged at him, the Rookie stuck the knife in an upward motion striking the knife inside the varren's mouth which came out from the top of its skull. The strike didn't kill the varren since it continued its thrashing, it suddenly turned upside down turning Rookie's hand which was inside its mouth along with it. Rookie took the chance and buried the knife into the ground, pinning the varren along with it. The varren was now pinned upside down, Rookie grabbed its tail and pulled it with all his might. The varren finally came off of the ground, its head was split vertically and its brains were all over in the floor.

Rookie took the knife off the ground sheathing it and leaning against the wall panting, he saw Tali finish the last of the varren with her shotgun, while Wrex stood not very far from the Rookie, standing and looking at him casually.

"Hmm, I've never saw a human fight an alpha varren and come out alive…much less do that", Wrex remarked glancing at the dead alpha varren, "I may just be starting to like you human"

"Wrex! What were you thinking? You could have helped him!" Tali scolded.

Wrex shrugged, "He didn't need any help"

"He could have died!" Tali protested

"He didn't, what's your point?" Wrex asked irritably.

Tali threw her hands in air in exasperation, then sighed, "I'm just going to check that vehicle for some power cells"

Rookie and Wrex followed Tali, they reached the vehicle and Tali climbed it. After sometime she came out holding what seemed to be power cells which were apparently too heave for her. Rookie offered to hold the power cell, which Tali readily gave him. It was even heavy for him and he was in no condition to carry it back all the way to the colony, so he handed it to Wrex…or practically shoved it on his hands.

Wrex looked in shocked from the power cell on his hand to back at Rookie who was walking away, "Forget what I said earlier, you're an asshole!"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The squad returned to Zhu's hope and informed the colonists about the dead alpha varren, restarted pipeline and the destroyed Geth transmitter. They also asked Fai Dan about the crazy man down at the tunnels, he passed it as Fatigue. Rookie didn't buy it.

When they were finished they reported back to Shepard.

"I see you've been having fun", Shepard commented dryly on the state of Rookie's armor, "Let's go"

Shepard ordered Wrex to stay behind while she took Rookie, Tali and Garrus. Now they were going to go towards the Exogeni's headquarters in a Mako.

They came out of the elevator and saw Kaidan and a few marines fight off two Geth turrets. Shepard walked up to him when they finished.

"I assume everything is going well down here", Shepard inquired and beckoned the Lieutenant and the squad to follow her as she walked towards the Mako.

"Yes ma'am, it is", Kaidan replied, "But I wish it was a bit…you know, normal"

"Normal is overrated, I prefer it this way", Shepard shrugged, "In any case, watch your back for the Geth", she jumped inside the driver's seat of the Mako.

"And the colonists…" Rookie added before climbing into the Mako.

Kaidan nodded, "Okay…Wait, what do you mean?"

The door of the Mako was already closed before he could get the answer. He saw the Mako in confusion as it rolled across the skyway and finally disappear.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N:** Thanks for keeping up with me, lately I've not been having enough time to write. Next chapter may also be posted a little late. So, have patience will ya?

Another thing, let me know if I'm portraying the characters correctly (Even Shepard) if I'm writing some of them in the wrong way, let me know how I can improve.

Till next time.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:** Sorry for taking this long to update, Real life is being a bitch to me.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 14 – Feros**

**Part 2 - Collateral Damages**

Geth are resourceful, hundreds of geth programs inside a single platform would build a consensus on the platform's next move. Geth did not fear, they didn't know how to. The geth rarely ever missed with the weapons they fired which were based on the predictions of an enemy's next move. But they failed to take one thing in account.

Some organics can be unpredictable.

This was what every single geth program concluded as their platform, a geth armature was blown into pieces by the Mako's Mass accelerator cannon in mid air. And to add insult to injury, the mako landed right on the top of the wrecked armature.

"Nice aim, Rookie!" Shepard shouted from the driver's seat. She didn't hear his reply over the sound of the Mako's engine.

'At least now he's getting more comfortable working with the non-humans', Shepard thought, which was her aim to begin with. Now if only Williams would do the same…

According to Tali, he had led them well, watching every single corner of the area for ambushes…without saying a single word. How the hell does someone do that?

"Skyway secured", Tali reported as she scanned the area from the Mako's radar.

They were on their way towards the ExoGeni headquarters. It was taking them longer than expected due to the number geth on the skyway and also because they had found another group of survivors at a junction on the skyway where they got some useful information about the ExoGeni headquarters.

"This is weird", said Garrus, "The geth were too thinly spread across the skyway. I would've expected greater resistance than this for protecting something the geth had made their base of operations"

"Maybe they didn't expect anyone to make it this for inside their perimeter", Tali replied.

"Scratch that!" Garrus suddenly shouted, "I've got something on the radar, it's big!"

A huge Geth dropship ascended on their right from beneath the skyway aiming its siege cannon at them.

"Thanks for jinxing it you two," said Shepard, her voice lacking any kind of worry.

The Mako narrowly dodged the first shot, which all but destroyed its point of impact. Rookie swiveled the turret towards the dropship and started firing away while Shepard continued to dodge the incoming fire. The dropship then descended back under the skyway into the clouds.

"It's coming from the other side!" Garrus shouted.

And as Garrus said, the dropship came back from their left very close to the skyway. It quickly shot its cannon a little too close to the Mako. Having no choice, Shepard punched the thrusters, landing right on the top of the dropship.

The geth dropship began to soar away from the skyway with the Mako on its back.

"Hang on, it's gonna try to shake us off it", Shepard warned.

The dropship started tilting itself so as to drop the Mako off its back, on the planet's surface. Shepard somehow punched the right thrusters at the right time to avoid falling off the dropship. It was then a blast of air hit her face, she turned to see the Mako's door opened and Rookie climbing off.

"Rookie! Come back, you idiot!" Shepard bellowed.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie couldn't hear her, he wouldn't. They weren't going anywhere with this. The Geth dropship would shake them off eventually. So, he activated his magnetic boots and slowly made his way towards the dropship's edge, his body pumping with adrenaline. Disobeying his CO was worth saving all their asses. If they thought he was crazy before…wait till they watch this.

He took a deep breath and jumped.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

"_Rookie! What the hell are you doing_!" Shepard shouted over the radio.

Rookie was clinging tightly for his dear life by the hook like formation at the bottom of the dropship. He kicked the trapdoor which the geth used to drop their troops. To his surprise, it opened and a geth trooper peeked through, it raised its rifle and fired. It managed to fire a few shots at Rookie before he swung by the hook and caught the geth's head between his legs and pulled it, sending the geth falling towards the planet's surface. The ODST then leaped inside the dropship.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

"_Rookie…Rookie! Come in, are you there_?" Shepard asked over the radio. For a few seconds she could hear gunfire over the other end while the dropship stopped shaking and hovered in one place.

Then the dropship turned around and made its way back towards the skyway. Shepard, Tali and Garrus sat in tense silence as they saw the skyway getting closer. As soon as they were close enough, Shepard punched the gas and brought the mako on the skyway.

She activated her radio, "_Rookie…is that you_?"

The Geth dropship's trapdoor opened and a few dead geth fell off.

"_Rookie, you took control of the dropship? That's great_!" Tali said excitedly, Rookie could hear Garrus laughing in the background, "_Can you fly it_?"

The dropship started to ascend clumsily, it bumped atleast two times into the nearby structures before coming to the same level as the geth ship attached to the ExoGeni headquarters.

"_Good job, Rookie_", said Shepard over the radio, "_Now bring out the guns and blow that thing to hell_"

Inside the dropship, Rookie brought up what he thought was the controls for the siege cannon. He punched the fire button.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard, Garrus and Tali got out of the Mako near the ExoGeni building, waiting for the Rookie to start the fireworks. But to their horror, the dropship suddenly accelerated forward, crashing right into the geth ship. The smoke and dust that the debris threw up didn't allow them to see what happened.

Shepard cursed under her breath, "C'mon, move, move! We have to get to Rookie's position, now!"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie blinked several times, trying to clear his blurry vision. He stood up, removed his helmet and rubbed his head which was throbbing with pain.

_Should've asked Tali for help instead of just pressing random buttons._

The ship jerked as he took a step. Both the geth ships were now hanging on the edge of the now destroyed top floor of the ExoGeni headquarters.

Rookie wore his helmet and slowly went for the controls opening the trapdoor. He reached the controls and opened the trapdoor. The front end of the ship, which was dangling from the edge, began to slide down due to the shift in weight. Rookie ran for the trapdoor on the other end of the dropship. He jumped out of the trapdoor into the top floor of the ExoGeni headquarters just in time to see the two wrecked ships fall off the building into the clouds.

_Well, that wasn't so bad._

Rookie stood up and dusted himself as he took a sigh of relief. It was then that he heard something break. He looked down to see cracks forming beneath his feet. The floor which got weakened by the crash finally broke away and the ODST went in with it. He fell on the top of some debris, a thick blanket of dust surrounding him.

And through the smoke, he could only mako out what seemed to be at least a dozen of flashlights all around him and a lot of familiar mechanical stuttering sounds.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard , Garrus and Tali literally blew through the first group of geth that encountered as soon as they entered the dark interior of the ExoGeni headquarters. They quickly went down the one way drop when they found the main door of the building blocked by a translucent blue barrier. They heard crashed of the two geth dropships falling off the building when they came to another dark chamber. A gunshot harmlessly bounced off Shepard's kinetic barrier. All the three of them quickly trained their weapons towards the source of the gunshot.

"Dammit!" a woman cautiously came out from dark.

"Who are you?" Shepard demanded.

"My name's Lizbeth", the woman replied, "I work here for the ExoGeni. I'm sorry, I thought that you were the Geth or one of those varren"

Garrus clicked his mandibles in irritation, "Which one of us looks looks a geth?...or a varren?"

"Um", Lizbeth's face flushed in embarrassment.

"Okay, Lizbeth, we're in kind of a rush, so go and hide, we'll come back for you when we're finished", said Shepard reassuringly and beckoned her team to follow her.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

No sooner than the smoke cleared, two flashbang grenades exploded on either side of the room, sending all the geths' systems into disarray, one of the perks of a flashbang, affecting everything in the room except him as he completely polarized his visor and blocked out all the sounds from his helmet. Within seconds, Rookie surveyed the area, there were two covers, one near the only door and other to the corner of the room. The tactical part of his mind said that if he went for the cover near the door, there was a chance that more geth could come from the door, surrounding him. So, he had to go for the cover at the corner of the room, intentionally getting himself cornered.

Besides, running away in this situation was out of the question.

Without wasting any more precious seconds, he drew his M7S and made a dash for his destination as the effects of the flashbang wore out on all the geth who started firing at him. He elbowed the first geth that came in his way right on the optics and fired at another with his gun injuring both of them but killing none, a few phasic rounds penetrated through his armor into his back, burning his flesh and making him stumble as he vaulted over the cover, falling on the other side and wincing in pain as the fall made his wounds worse.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Three varren pounced at Shepard at once but were held in air by her biotics, she then systematically blew them up with her shotgun. She then turned around and saw Garrus and Tali who were finished with their share of varren and theit respective weapons smoking.

"C'mon, through that door", Shepard ordered as she took lead again, Garrus and Tali falling in formation behind her.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie was outnumbered, alone and without any kind of support and didn't have the luxury to tend to his injuries. But this wasn't the first time he was in this kind of situation.

Thankfully he had the arsenal to compensate for the situation.

Rookie whipped out his SRS99 and lobbed a high explosive grenade right over his cover and was rewarded with geth scrap metal flying over to him, destroying the group that tried to swarm him.

CRACK!

CRACK!

He quickly got out of his cover and sniped the two nearest geth troopers. As he reloaded his rifle, his cover shook as a rocket exploded against it, all the geth inside the room no longer tried to swarm him. They changed the tactics and started to slowly chip away his cover while maintaining their distance. He quickly peeked over his cover and counted two geth shock troopers, two rocket troopers and a juggernaut. He sent a flashbang flying towards the group and without even waiting for the grenade to detonate.

CRACK!

CRACK!

Rookie sniped the two geth rocket troopers and made a dash towards them, the flashbang detonated a little too close to the two geth shock troopers, killing them and stunning the remaining geth juggernaut in its place. But before Rookie could cover even half the distance between them, the juggernaut recovered and sent a carnage shot flying towards him. Rookie dived away to avoid the shot and cleanly got away with it. But now he realized what the Juggernaut did, it brought him out in the open. Now, with no cover nearby, the hulking geth charged towards the ODST aiming to physically wound him.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Disposing of the lone Krogan was easy enough, it was the geth jumpers in the next room that took the team longer than necessary to get to Rookie's position.

"Rookie, come in", Shepard called over the radio.

She had tried to contact him least two times before and Rookie would open his radio so she could hear explosions and gunfire, his way of telling her that he was too busy to chat.

The team finally reached the top of the flight of stairs that led towards the top floor, they entered the room to see Rookie dive away from a shot from the Juggernaut's Shotgun, Rookie did a textbook dive and roll to avoid the shot. For a huge geth, the juggernaut was really fast as it was already in front of him and pulled back its shotgun for a killing blow, Rookie bodily slammed against it, making the huge geth stumble back a step, using the opportunity, he pulled out his sniper rifle.

CRACK!

He blasted a huge hole on the geth's torso with the point blank shot. The geth was still up.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

The geth's torso literally ripped apart from its lower body and it finally fell.

With the adrenaline wearing off, he leaned against the wall, breathing deeply as the pain in his wounds returned. Shepard quickly ran over to him and administered some medi-gel to his wounds.

"You okay?" she asked with a concern.

"Rookie nodded, sighing in relief as the medi-gel numbed the pain.

"You're freaking crazy, you know that?" Garrus offered a talon, "How many times were you dropped on your head as a child?"

Rookie held up seven fingers as he stood up.

"Next time you wan't to do something suicidal…wait for my orders", said Shepard frowning and walked around him to apply medi-gel to his back, "Rookie, do you mind telling me why the hell is your Kinetic barrier generator turned off?"

Rookie shrugged.

"Then turn it on!"

He shook his head in reply. Shepard would've asked more before Tali interrupted.

"Why did you crash ship!" the technology and the information inside would've been useful!" Tali yelled at him.

"You pressed the wrong button didn't you?" said Shepard smirking, then turned towards Tali, "But really, he couldn't have known how to fly the damn thing, he's lucky that he's even alive"

Tali nodded, "Okay, sorry"

After patching Rookie up, Shepard led the team down the building, stopping only to get information from the company's VI about the Thorian which was apparently an intelligent and sentient plant being which has existed from around the time the Protheans did. After getting all the information they needed, the team made their way towards the exit. With the geth ships destroyed, the blue barrier blocking the main entrance had dissipated, they were on their way out when their radios crackled.

"_Commander, come in_", came joker's voice.

"_This is Shepard, what happened Joker_?" asked Shepard.

"_Commander, you have to get back here, something's happened to the colonists, they tried to attack us_", Joker informed.

"_Is anyone injured_?" asked Shepard.

"_No, Doctor Chakwas and most of the marines made it inside the Normandy_", replied Joker, "_The ground team reported that they would distract the colonists and help the rest of the crew to make it back inside the Normandy_"

"Alright, we're on our way back, contact the ground team and tell them not to kill any of the colonists, make that a standing order, Shepard out"

"So, much for a simple search and rescue"

"I heard that Joker"

"Yup, that's because I transmitted it", came a cheeky reply.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N:** Thanks for everyone who still reads this fic, much love to you all :D

Hopefully, I would be able to update this more frequently.

Till next time.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 15 – Feros**

**Part 3 – The Thorian**

"Rookie, let the lady sit", said Shepard.

…

"C'mon, be a gentleman for once!"

Rookie sighed and stood up, grabbing the supports and letting Lizbeth sit in his place.

Lizbeth had told them everything she knew about the Thorian and also the fact that she was actually against using the colonists of Zhu's hope as test subjects for observing the effects of the Thorian's influence. Now, the Normandy team was inside the Mako on their way back to the second group of survivors who were hiding in the skyway. Since Rookie had destroyed two of Geth ships, they didn't encounter much resistance on their way back, which was only good for him since he was standing.

"_Hello? Is anybody out there?_" came Julian's voice over the radio, "_Can you hear us? We need help_"

"_What are you doing? Get away from the radio!_" Jeong's voice interrupted.

"What's going on?" asked Lizbeth.

"_No, I have to!_" Julian protested, "_My daughter's out there!_"

"That was my mother wasn't it? Stop the rover, stop!" Lizbeth demanded.

"Be patient, we're almost there", said Shepard.

Shepard stopped the Mako at the skyway's junction, near the entrance of the survivors' hideout. Everyone got out of the Mako and headed towards the entrance when Shepard gave them the signal to stop.

"Alright, listen up", Shepard began, "Something seems very wrong down there, so be careful. But don't shoot any of the security guards unless they shoot first, they don't have enough people to defend themselves against the geth. Just follow my lead and let me do the talking"

Shepard then led the team inside the survivor's hideout where Jeong and Lizbeth's mother were in the middle of an argument while the security guards surrounded both of them in a circle. The team and Lizbeth hid behind the crates acting as the barricades.

"This is wrong, Jeong!" Julian protested.

"Get her out of here", Joeng ordered the security guards.

Two of the guards started to take Julian away. Lizbeth then ran out of their cover before Shepard could stop her..

"Let go of my mother!"

Jeong saw Lizbeth come stride towards him threateningly, but he also saw some movement behind the barricade, "Come out, all of you! I know you're there"

Shepard came out of her cover and walked coolly towards Jeong with the rest of the team on her six.

"Oh, damn! Shepard, I knew it was too much of a hope that the geth would kill you", said Jeong, "I've read your profile, I know what you did during the blitz, but we don't need your kind here"

"What's the problem here?" Shepard asked to Julian, completely ignoring Jeong's offending attitude.

From the corner of his, Rookie could see one of the ExoGeni employee, Gavin looking at him expectantly. He was the one who had asked them earlier to retrieve some data for him from the ExoGeni headquarters. Shepard didn't need him for the negotiation, she could handle it herself. So he made his way towards the employee when he was blocked by a security guard. The security guard just stood there saying nothing, so the ODST just stared him down.

Five seconds…

The guard began to look anxious, but didn't take his eyes off the grey visor.

Ten seconds…

Little beads of perspiration formed on the guard's forehead.

Fifteen seconds…

The guard couldn't resist anymore and finally sidestepped and for the first time in that day, Rookie smiled, it was always fun messing with people's heads. He took out the OSD from his backpack and tossed it to the ExoGeni employee.

"Whoa, easy!" said Gavin catching the OSD, "Anyway, thanks. I thought you'd forget about it"

…

"Here, Take this", Gavin transferred some credits to Rookie's account, "That's the least I could do"

Rookie nodded and looked back to where Shepard and Jeong were talking. He couldn't get a clear view over all the guards and some of the other employees that surrounded them, so he walked around the talked crowd casually until he found a spot directly behind Jeong.

"Everyone, shut up! Let me think", Jeong had his pistol out and was pointing it towards Shepard.

Some people tend to crack under tense situations or during negotiations and the same people with guns tend to ruin it. Rookie and Shepard both knew it. If Jeong even let one shot fly accidentally, the other nervous and trigger happy guards that surrounded them may fire, in which case the Normandy team would be left with no choice but to neutralize them. The Spectre spotted him behind Jeong and shot him one look of approval. He didn't waste any time breaking into the circle running towards Jeong.

"Argh! The back of my lower legs!...Ow! The front of my face!"

Jeong was now off his feet, on the ground, his nose bleeding and his gun on Rookie's hand. All the guards had their weapons on the ODST and the rest of the team, Garrus and Tali took out their weapons as well. Shepard ignored them and crouched near Jeong.

"Jeong, you should help the colonists", said Shepard, taking his attention away from the Rookie, "It will be profitable to your company"

Jeong rolled his eyes, "How'd you figure?"

"A colony that survived and prospered in spite of the geth attack just because of you", explained Shepard mimicking the kind of slimy and deceptive smile that Jeong gave earlier, "That would make you look like a hero"

Jeong looked thoughtfully, "Hmm…It makes sense when you put it like that. Okay, it's decided, we'll help the colonists", he declared, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to discuss this with the ExoGeni board"

Jeong walked away, leaving Shepard standing there with a self satisfied smile. All the others looked at her in disbelief.

"Wow", Julian broke the silence, "I didn't think that it was possible to change his mind, Thank you, Commander"

Even Rookie looked at her with his eyebrows raised. He was almost convinced that a full blown firefight would break out or they would have to beat it into Jeong or at least threaten him in some way. Shepard had managed to avoid either of those scenarios and even convinced Jeong and in extension, the ExoGeni to help the colony.

The woman isn't just smart, she's crafty too.

Rookie's respect for the Spectre just went up a notch.

"So, what about the colonists?" asked Shepard, "They'll try to stop us from killing the Thorian and I don't want to kill them"

"There's no need to", said Lizbeth, "They're just not themselves, maybe killing the Thorian might bring them to their senses"

"Can you help us in any way?" asked Shepard.

"Yes, sure", Lizbeth reached for her pocket and removed something, "Take this, this is a mod for your grenades, it releases a gas that will knock the colonists unconscious"

"But wouldn't it affect us too?" asked Shepard.

"The Thorian's effect may already have made the colonists' bodies vulnerable to the point that would be affected by the gas in this mod. But it isn't strong enough to affect you", explained Lizbeth.

Shepard took the mods and applied it to her grenades, then turned to Rookie, "Keep the flashbangs, they might come in handy"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The Mako skidded into a stop as the team reached Zhu's hope. They all got out to manually open the garage's door when they came upon the garage's door when they came upon a hunched figure. It slowly rose, it looked like a rotten and decomposed human, the skin on its face stretched back to give it a twisted grin and a black hollow where the eye should have been. But before the abomination could do as much as lift its claws, Shepard blasted it with her shotgun. It exploded, showering them with rotten gore.

"Keelah, what was that?" asked Tali, her voice shaking a bit.

"That couldn't have been a human", said Garrus swiping his talon across his armor.

"Whatever it was, we might encounter more like them", ordered shepard, "So, kill them but we still won't kill the colonists, understood?"

"Understood, Commander"

They walked up to Rookie, who had opened the garage door and was staring at several hunched figures like the one they encountered before.

"So many of them…" Tali managed to whisper.

The ones nearest to them slowly got up and made a mad dash towards them.

"Weapons free!" Shepard shouted.

Rookie couldn't hear her, he was lost in himself as his heart skipped a beat on the sight of the beings that ran towards them.

BANG!

One of the beings exploded right in front of him by a shotgun blast by Shepard, bringing him out of his trance. Another one came right behind it flailing its claws. A clean tearing of flesh was heard as one of the creeper's claws fell off, it opened its mouth to spray acid when two pistol shots tore through its head and it fell dead on the ground. Rookie ran head on into the incoming swarm of the Thorian creepers, his knife on one hand and pistol on the other, hacking away and shooting every creeper in his way, very well aware that he was coming between the line of fire of his team mates. When all the creepers in the immediate vicinity died they advanced towards the elevator guarded by the two colonists which were easily knocked out by a single gas grenade from Shepard. The team quietly got inside the elevator.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Shepard always thought that she'd seen it all, but it would only approximately last until see saw the next one.

For her, this was all from one of those really bad zombie horror vids. At least the husks looked part human, part cybernetic monstrosities, but these Thorian creepers really stepped it up a notch. But just because they showed up in real life doesn't mean that they would give her a pause. She had also expected the same of the Rookie, which was the reason she couldn't understand his actions in the garage. Right now, he had his M7S trained on the small gap inside the elevator, his finger around the trigger, not big enough for a creeper to fit through but still kept staring at the gap as if something might pop right out of it, even though he had several burns on his armor from the acidic vomit of the creepers. It was when Shepard examined his tense body language and his heavy breathing to realize what he was holding back.

Panic…sheer panic.

Knowing the ODST for about a month now, Shepard didn't think he was afraid of anything. She had to talk with him about this later, this was something personal.

"Compartmentalize, Trooper", Shepard advised sternly.

She could hear him taking a few calming breaths, but before she could say anything else to him, the elevator came to a stop and Rookie was already out scanning the area. After clearing the area, they made their way towards the colony through a series of corridors and stairs, encountering little resistance on their way. As they got closer to the colony, they could hear the sounds of gunfire and familiar voices shouting orders. The rest of the ground team had attacked the colony.

"Good, let's go help them", said Shepard and led the team towards the other side of the freighter acting as the shelter for the colony.

Shepard and the others joined the rest of the ground team as they fought the last of the colonists and the creepers. Rookie sprayed a creeper with phasic shots from his M7S, making it explode and saving the marine that was about to be sprayed by the creeper's acidic vomit.

CRACK!

The shot went clean through five creepers, killing each of them.

BANG!

A flashbang exploded near the two colonists who tried to cover their eyes and ears in pain. Rookie sneaked up on them knocked each one of them out and then saw the rest of the team finish the rest of the creepers.

"Glad you could make it in time, Commander", Kaidan greeted as the team regrouped.

"Yeah, wouldn't want you to miss out on a good fight" said Wrex grinning and cocking his shotgun.

"Sitrep", Shepard demanded.

"Zombie apocalypse, ma'am", replied Ashley dryly.

"Yeah, I think these things came from beneath the freighter and attacked us", Kaidan reported, "Around the same time the colonists went crazy and their leader, Fai Dan killed himself"

"Then the Thorian must be located right below this freighter", said Shepard.

"The what?" asked Liara.

"The one causing all this mess", replied Shepard.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

They found the controls for the freighter and went through the passage beneath. They left some of the injured marines behind for medical care while the rest of the ground team, all eight of them, followed Shepard. They arrived in a dark chamber which was barely illuminated by the little light that came through the surface, right above the enormous creature that occupied the center of the chamber.

"Now we only need to find this thing and…and", Tali stopped dead on her tracks at the sight of the creature even as the rest of the team went ahead of her, "Keelah, what is that!"

Ashley whistled.

Shepard smirked, "Took the whistle right out of my mouth, chief"

The Thorian suddenly started making gurgle sounds from deep within and spat out a green skinned Asari commando who walked up to them, speaking for the Thorian. Rookie wasn't really interested in the Asari's babble and kept examining the Thorian.

_What the hell kind of plant is this?_

He was beyond relief to know that it wasn't what he initially thought it was, it couldn't have been. Even then, these creepers really unnerved him, they reminded him too much of a kind of enemy he once fought, he wanted to get out of this place fast. The talk with the Asari didn't seem to be going anywhere.

"The old growth shall not trust your kind anymore and you shall-"

CRACK!

The Asari's head exploded.

They had got as much as they could out of her anyway.

"That's one way to cut a long speech short", said Garrus dryly.

"That was a good move, Rookie. But let me know the next time you intention is midsentence murder", said Shepard wiping a drop of blood off her chin.

No one could say anything else as the Thorian creepers came out of the darkness and surrounded them. But even the hordes of creepers were nothing against the full force of the Normandy ground team. The only reason Shepard usually took only two or three of her squad mates at a time because they usually have to travel inside the Mako. But now that she had her full team with her, they had already made it to the top floor of the chamber, ripping the Thorian's nodes on the walls along the way. They took out the last node on the floor they could find and found that the Thorian was dangling from one last node on the other side of the chamber which seemed to be inaccessible. It too started to tear down from the sheer weight of the enormous creature. They all walked up to the edge of the platform.

"Looks like it needs one last push", said Wrex, he turned towards the Rookie and smirked, "Any volunteers?"

Rookie just walked away.

Ashley sighed in relief, "For a moment there, I thought that he would-"

A black blur passed right behind Wrex and jumped off the platform.

"-Jump on the top of the Thorian…"

"…I guess he just needed a jumpstart", said Garrus.

""Wrex, from now on… please don't give him any ideas", said Kaidan rubbing his forehead.

Rookie landed right on spot on the Thorian's 'head'. His size was negligible as compared to the Thorian, but his weight and the force of impact was enough to tear down the last nose all the way down. Rookie jumped off the Thorian's head, but he miscalculated the jump and started to fall into the abyss along with the Thorian. It was then he was surrounded by blue wisps of energy. He was carefully brought up to the level ground and saw that it was Shepard who used her biotics to bring him up.

Shepard smirked as she held him up in the air, "You owe me"

She carefully landed him on the solid ground as the rest of the team walked up to them. The whole structure shook as they heard the Thorian's last howl of pain.

Everything went silent.

Rookie walked up to the edge and surveyed the enormous hole. Even with his VISR, he couldn't see very far, he turned around and nodded. Then they heard some wet tearing noises coming from the far wall. An Asari fell out from one of the many sacs on the walls which resembled the other Asari clones that they encountered except that her skin was blue. The whole team except the Rookie walked towards the Asari. Rookie just kept staring at a dead, but intact Thorian creeper. He still had some lingering doubts in his mind, so he went to confirm his suspicions

For himself, if not for anyone else.

He carefully approached the dead creeper, with his pistol on his hand as if it would spring to life and attack him, he knelt beside it and scanned it with his Omni tool.

_Unknown plant species._

Rookie looked at the rest of the readings in confusion, it was beyond his comprehension. So, he took out his knife and carefully peeled its skin along its torso. It didn't have any recognizable organs that would suggest that he was ever a human being.

"Rookie, let's go!" Shepard called out to him as the rest of the team along with the Asari apparently made their way towards the exit.

Rookie crushed the creeper's head with his boot and followed them.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N:** Now that was pretty quick, right? But the next chapter could take a while. It's another interlude chapter, so that means original stuff which usually takes longer to write.

As always, reviews are always appreciated, even if they are…

'Good chapter!'

'Nice update!'

Or

'Update more frequently or I'll strangle you!'

Till next time.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Last chapter had around fifty reviews and majority of them were from my readers threatening to strangle me over the late updates…So much love! I didn't think people liked me that much ;)

And for that reason, I give you the longest chapter yet.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

**Chapter 16 – Interlude II**

Alliance ships were on their way towards Feros. They were going to provide protection to the colony while disposing of any stragglers around the planet. The Spectre and her team had more important matters to attend to. With no other business in the colony, the Normandy had left Zhu's Hope.

The decontamination chamber was supposed to get rid of any kind of foreign contamination which the marines tend to pick up which clung to their armors when returning from mission in hazardous atmosphere. What it failed to get rid of from the Normandy team's body armors was the really bad smell of the Thorian goo. They got splashed by gallons of it when they tore off the Thorian's nodes and when one of the creepers exploded too close to them.

"Hey, Commander. How did the zombie hunting go-Ugh!" Joker cupped his nose and mouth, his face contorting to a frown as the ground team entered the Normandy, "What did the zombies do, piss on you!"

"Actually, they puked on us", said Shepard.

"And how's that any better?"

"Good point…"

"Now, leave!" said Joker turning back to the controls, "I don't want that smell to stay in the cockpit"

Shepard turned to address the team, "He's right. Now, everyone will submit their armors at the armory for cleanup," She looked pointedly at the Rookie, "Then go and take a bath and for this once, you are allowed to use as much water as you want, whatever that gets rid of this smell, but just this once. After that, report to the Med-bay for a routine checkup"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie rested both of his hands on the wall, leaned heavily on them and let his head hang down his shoulders as hot water poured down his body, relieving his muscles of most of the strains and tensions even as it slightly burned his half healed bullet wounds and acid burns.

Very rarely, a marine would get to enjoy such a satisfying shower, especially on starships. Of course he was going to enjoy this rare luxury.

But he couldn't help but divert his thoughts back to what happened in Feros. He shouldn't have showed a weakness like that, he knew better. And now, he was sure that Shepard would pursue the subject once both of them were off duty. Not that he didn't like his CO, he did consider her a good soldier and a capable leader. She would talk to the crew in her free time to know their particular strengths and weaknesses, presumably to get an idea of what kind of people she was working with and to be able to lead them better. Rookie didn't disagree with that sentiment, but that didn't mean that he was entirely comfortable being open about himself.

After making sure that he didn't smell anymore, he got out of the shower and wore an Alliance standard military fatigue and pulled the sleeves up until half of his ODST tattoo was visible and put a translator earpiece.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

"Glad you decided to get out of that armor", Shepard commented, "This is way better than talking to a bobbing helmet.

…

They entered the Med-bay together where Doctor Chakwas had all the medical equipment ready for them as the four non-human members of the ground team left. It didn't take long for their checkup, Wrex's wounds had regenerated quickly and he was the first to leave, Tali was the least damaged and was untouched by the creeper acid, being extra careful that she was and went to clean her exo-suit in the safe atmosphere of the decontamination chamber. Garrus had some of his plates burnt, but nothing serious, even Liara was not hurt much and withdrew to the office behind the med-bay. The four humans entered the med bay where Chakwas instructed them to strip and lay down on one of the beds while she pulled the privacy curtains around the beds. It was silent for a while as the good doctor prepared the medical equipment.

"Things got pretty rough down there, Commander", Alenko spoke up, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Alenko", replied Shepard.

"Yeah and what with you going all ape-shit on those creepers, Rookie?" asked Williams.

Rookie didn't reply but frowned and was thankful that others didn't see him, He knew Somebody would bring that up.

"You all handled yourselves pretty well down there in my absence", commented Shepard, changing the subject.

"Thanks, Commander", replied Alenko, "Though you should've seen the doctor in action when the medical team retreated towards the Normandy, she handled the situation quite well"

"Kinda creepy how she knocked out one of the colonists", Williams remarked.

"Well, I _am _a military doctor and that was just self-defense", said Doctor Chakwas, "Although, I didn't quite enjoy doing that to the poor man. I'm a pacifist for all intents and purposes"

"Pacifist?" Williams laughed, "Doc, what you did down there, it isn't called 'Pacifism', it's called 'Hardcore'!"

That drew a good-natured chuckle out of everyone, even Rookie gave a low chuckle, despite himself.

"I just might include you on the ground team in the next mission", said Shepard teasingly, "How about it doctor?"

"Har Har, Commander. I'm happy with my current responsibilities, thank you" replied Chakwas with a little mirth in her voice, "And enough with the chit-chat, now stay silent and let me do my job"

The three marines obediently fell silent as the good doctor scanned their bodies one by one and proceeded to inject each of them with anti-biotics that they got from the ExoGeni employees to get rid of any trace amounts of the Thorian's spores that they may have inhaled. After that, Chakwas reapplied medi-gel to their wounds which were almost healed by now. Tired by the day's events, the Rookie almost fell asleep when the doctor announced that neither of them had any bad reaction to the creeper acid and asked the marines to leave.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie had decided not to sleep for now and reported to the Garage to help the crew to clean the Garage for launching the Mako, the Normandy was currently in the Hercules system around the planet Eletania's orbit, they were still in the Attican beta cluster. Admiral Hackett had apparently asked Shepard to recover a lost module on the Eletania's surface.

The Rookie, Ashley and a few servicemen shifted the benches, supply crates and anything not attached to the hull to the engineering, anything not attached to the hull was unsafe to leave when launching the Mako into a planet due to the winds that entered the garage in great force whenever the external garage door was opened.

Shepard, Garrus and Wrex entered the Mako as the Normandy neared the Eletania's surface, everyone cleared the garage as Shepard aligned the Mako at the garage door. The launch was successful and then the crew began another tedious job of returning everything back to the garage.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie had snuck out of the garage and was now in the mess hall to have a meal as it was his shift's turn for dinner. Shepard had put the ground team (Whoever had a specific job aside from the groundside missions) in the same shift, so he intended to finish eating before Ashley showed up to avoid her berating. He walked towards the dining table where he saw some of the crew, along with Kaidan already started eating, upon seeing a few chairs empty, he decided that it would be nice eating with some company for once, but that was until he overheard a part of a conversation as he neared them.

"…and then I said, 'That's not my sweater, that's my body hair!'"

Suddenly, eating alone sounded like a good idea.

Since they were in the range of a nearby comm. buoy, Rookie, without stopping turned and made his way towards the terminals, took the one in the far corner and started browsing it sub-consciously only to take his mind off sleeping. Moments later, he saw some of the engineering crew enter the mess hall along with Tali, who came and took the terminal beside him.

"Hello, Rookie", greeted Tali.

He nodded in reply.

Tali observed him after sitting there for a while and saw as the ODST frowned, took out an Omni-tool from his pocket and downloaded whatever it was that he was reading in it, he then stood up and left.

By now, everyone had finished their meals and left the mess hall, so Rookie left his terminal, picked up some food and sat on one of the empty chairs. Tali came and sat across from him with her own nutrient paste.

"You look pretty rough, are you okay?" the Quarian asked.

Rookie nodded in reply.

"You certainly don't look like it", she stated.

Rookie didn't know whether the exhaustion was showing in his face or his body language, but he didn't reply and kept eating while reading the text on the screen of his Omni-tool.

"So…what are you reading?" asked Tali conversationally.

He sighed, irritation started swelling up inside him, he sincerely wished that there was someone else for the Quarian to chat with. But he restrained himself from telling her off, he didn't thought that it was right for him to vent his frustration on her. He turned the screen around and held out his arm at her.

He was supposed to play nice with the aliens anyway.

Tali took out her own Omni-tool and converted the text into her own language, she then studied it for a moment, reading the heading of the articles.

_Omni tool: Design and workings._

_Basic programming._

_Software and Hardware information._

_Hacking for dummies._

She giggled softly when she read the last heading and saw Rookie's eyes narrow at her.

Rookie had decided to learn more about hacking to distract himself for some time. As an ODST, he had been trained to handle any kind of situation that he may encounter, which included basic knowledge of computer systems and hacking, among other things, which he had done many times in the past whenever and AI wasn't available. He wasn't the most tech savvy of his older squad, but he knew enough to get by.

Now that he was in a world entirely different from his own, most of the technology was different as well. Omni-tool was one of them. He was stuck with a Bluewire mark I, one of the most basic civilian grade Omni-tool out there. It was nowhere near as powerful as the more advanced 'tools that the more tech savvy of his current squad like Tali, Alenko and a few others possessed, which made it all the more difficult for him to figue out its inner workings.

"Hmm…you know, I can help you with this if you like", said Tali thoughtfully.

Rookie brows shot up.

"I can probably give you some better tips than these articles", she continued.

The ODST was genuinely surprised, he gave her a questioning look.

"It will be only good if you know basic tricks of hacking", The Quarian shrugged and continued in a dry tone, "maybe you can avoid explosions and crashing ships next time"

Rookie leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, "And why would you help me?"

"What do you mean?" asked Tali, surprised that the normally quietest of their team actually said something.

Rookie frowned, he had thought that he had made the question quite clear.

"Oh, I get what you mean", she nodded, "It's all about our first meeting, right?" don't worry, I got over it"

The ODST still looked unconvinced.

"You obviously don't know the Quarians that well, then", Tali sighed, "You see, we can't have petty grudges among the people whom we work with in the flotilla, we tend to be a closely knit group. So, I guess it's a force of habit for me", she shrugged, "Besides, I'm just trying to help you and it's not a Quarian's evil scheme"

It felt a little weird listening to an alien freely speaking to him and even weirder for the said alien to offer him help for nothing. Rookie wasn't above asking for help, but wasn't quite sure about getting it from the Quarian…but again, assuming what she just told him to be true, it was a pretty good opportunity to learn more. It may be a little out of his comfort zone, but he was going nowhere with this by himself anyway.

And since no one else would help him, he finally nodded.

"Great!" Tali exclaimed in excitement, We'll do it later when we have more time to spare"

Rookie nodded again and resumed eating his food.

"You know", Tali spoke up after some time, "I would've expected Lieutenant Alenko to help you with this, aren't you friends with him?"

Rookie nodded in reply.

"So, why didn't he help you?" the Quarian asked.

The ODST shot a glance towards one of the terminals that he had wrecked on day one in the Normandy using Alenko's Omni-tool, it still wasn't fixed.

He shrugged his shoulders innocently.

Tali was about to ask more but was interrupted when a serviceman came towards them and saluted.

"Sir, Officer Pressly has asked you to report to the hanger"

Rookie nodded and quickly stuffed the remaining food into his mouth and started walking towards the elevator.

"See you later!" Tali called after him.

_Huh…_

He made a quick stop in the bathrooms to wash his face while he thought about the Tali's offer. Something about it made him feel like call bull on her attitude. That or he was just being way to suspicious.

He decided to reserve his opinions about the Quarian for now.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie exited the elevator and saw hangar bustling with activity, a few servicemen were checking various equipment that he recognized as the standard EVA gear, a few of the engineering crew were coming back and forth into the hanger, one of them handing a datapad to Chief Engineer Adams, who was standing near the crates where Wrex usually stood along with Navigation Officer Pressly and Chief Williams, Rookie approached them, saluted and stood beside the Gunnery Chief.

"At ease, Corporal", Pressly nodded at him, "Now that both of you are here, gear up for the EVA"

"We are around the orbit of planet Syided", explained Adams, "We are approaching a large debris field mixed together with a cluster of Trojan asteroids in the planet's orbit where we'll be sending you two to go and retrieve anything of interest"

"Sir, what about the ground team?" Williams interrupted, "Why did we leave them back on Eletania?"

"We have not been followed by Saren's geth or any pirates and it's relatively safe in this system", replied Adams, "And if they do show up, we can be there within minutes"

"Besides, the Commander authorized this herself", said Pressly, "We were originally supposed to do this after the shore party was finished, but the Commander said that it could take a while to recover the module…something about chasing space monkeys", he glanced at Adams momentarily in confusion before turning back to them, "Any more questions?"

"No, sir"

"Right, then", said Pressly looking at the datapad on his hand, "We chose both of you because you have passed the zero gravity combat training, but there aren't any records of field evaluation on either you, why is that?"

"It's complicated, sir", replied Williams.

Rookie couldn't really explain anything, so he remained silent.

"Okay, then", said Pressly, "Sending a drone would be easier and faster but this is a good opportunity to evaluate both of your performances"

"We did the scans of the asteroid field", said Adams, "The only intact piece of debris is deep inside the field, so just go there and retrieve anything of interest, understood?"

"Yes, sir"

"Now gear up and report to the airlock when you're ready", ordered Pressly and left the garage along with Adams.

Rookie and Ashley walked towards the servicemen who were checking the EVA gear and collected their armors from the chief's station. Now that it was free of the awful smell of the Thorian goo, it was safe to don them.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The requisitions officer had done a fairly good job of fixing his armor, but the man was no professional and was unfamiliar with the titanium coated armors. As a result, Rookie's chest plate looked a little rough around the edges. He had to find a better way to repair his armor, or else…he glanced at Williams…wear one of those.

They both proceeded to help each other to attach the thrusters on their backs.

"Do you know how to use that?" asked Ashley.

He shook his head, "Ours are different".

Rookie felt the unfamiliar weight of the thruster on his that he wore in place of his backpack. It looked a little like T-pack, but was smaller and lighter. Ashley quickly demonstrated its use to him. Thruster was powered by a small element zero core and was meant strictly for EVA, and to his surprise very much like the T-pack that he was used to. But being a somewhat different than what he knew, it was going to take a while to get used to the foreign yet similar equipment. Other than the thruster, there was the handheld drill and portable magnetic clamps which both of them carried with them.

After both of them were satisfied, the duo entered the elevator and made their way towards the Normandy's airlock through the CIC where Pressly was waiting for them.

"Are you both ready?" asked the Navigation officer.

"Yes, sir"

"Good, I want you to update Joker with status report every five minutes", he instructed, "I'll have a second team ready in case things go south, any questions?"

"No, sir"

Pressly nodded to them, "Go ahead, then"

The duo entered the decontamination chamber and sealed their suits as the doors closed behind them while the smooth voice of the ship's VI informed them of the equalization of pressure with the vacuum outside.

"You ready for this?" asked Ashley, giving Rookie a sidelong glance.

He shook his head.

The D-con chamber finished depressurizing and the airlock's outer door opened to reveal a big cluster of debris, occasionally littered with metal debris. The scene ahead of them was faintly illuminated by a few rays of the system's sun and being on the dark side of the planet, most of the debris was barely visible to the naked eye. They both activated their magnetic boots and walked across the outer hull of the Normandy until they reached near its wings. Their radios crackled.

'

"Uploading map of the area and the location of your destination", said Joker in the professional tone he rarely used, "Good luck"

Both of their Omni-tools chimed to life as they received the three dimensional map of the debris field and their destination marked deep inside with a small dot. Rookie synchronized the map with his HUD, which made a nav marker appear, the distance turned out to be about five hundred meters, then he activated his VISR and within seconds, his suit's computer painted the visible debris field in orange and the white and pink form of Williams in warm neon green. Ashley was trying to survey the surroundings with her Omni-tool's flashlight.

"Alright, I'll go first, don't break the radio contact", said Ashley over the radio and kicked herself off the hull, she gently soared across the vacuum towards the nearest asteroid and gracefully landed on her legs.

"Phew! Looks like I've still got it, your turn"

Rookie followed her lead and landed on one knee beside her and quickly grabbed the jagged edge of the asteroid. Now together, they used the thrusters to navigate across the debris field.

His vision suddenly and momentarily blurred. The ODST shook his head, it was not a HUD malfunction. He was beginning to feel the exhaustion again, both physically and mentally.

"Hey! Stay close", Ashley called out and lowered her speed as she saw him lagging behind, "Don't wander away, not everyone has the night vision"

Rookie didn't reply and they continued the same way deeper. After a while, Ashley updated Joker on their status after which they continued. They reached a large space littered with little pieces of debris and in the middle was their destination, a single asteroid with a half intact shuttle partially buried inside the rock. The duo started investigating the wreckage, which wasn't much to begin with. They were able to identify it to be of Salarian origin. After searching the rest of the surface of the asteroid, they almost gave up until they came across a small mold of lead that floated close to the surface which also happened to be containing some debris, according to their scan. It would have been pretty hard to take it back to the Normandy, so they decided to take out whatever was inside it. After setting up the magnetic clamps on the asteroid's surface, Rookie carefully started drilling into the mold. It turned out to be a league of one medallion.

He handed it to Williams.

"What!" she exclaimed in disbelief, "We came all the way just for that crap? That's bull-"

"Normandy to zee-gee team", Joker's frantic voice suddenly came over the radio, "Get your asses back here right now! We're getting a distress call from the ground team!"

"Joker, we don't have enough time to come all the way back there", replied Ashley, "Go and help the ground team"

"What! We can't just-"

"We'll be fine, just go"

They could hear Joker discussing something with someone off the radio which just came off as incoherent whispers on their end.

"Alright, stay put", Joker finally replied, sighing, "We'll be back for you when we're done"

The duo couldn't see the Normandy from their position, but knew that it had took off when they lost radio contact, leaving both of them hovering over the asteroid in an awkward silence. Rookie didn't particularly had any problem with staying silent, he would've actually preferred it, but he didn't think that same could be said for Williams.

"Sooo…" Ashley began in a dry tone, "Do you come here often?"

Rookie tried to suppress a chuckle, leave it to the Chief to surprise the hell out of him.

They both fell silent again when he didn't reply. This was a pretty good distraction, it might help him stay awake. It was quite a while since he had last slept, it was no wonder that he was feeling a bit irritable.

_I hate analyzing myself._

"So, what do you think happened?" asked Ashley.

"Geth attack", he replied.

"Or it could be pirates or something"

The ODST shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't mean to jinx it, but what happens if the Normandy gets destroyed?" asked Ashley conversationally.

"We'll die of asphyxiation and I'll blame everything on you"

"Ass"

Silence again.

For Ashley, every second felt like an eternity. The empty crashed shuttle, combined with the very dark surroundings and complete silence started to grate on her nerves and the Rookie wasn't being very helpful. She let her gaze wander towards him, he was gripping the edge of the shuttle lightly, since the asteroid was too small to have its own gravitational field, but after a moment she saw his fingers uncurl making the ODST slowly float away, unmoving.

"Whoa!" she quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back, "This isn't the time or the place to fall asleep, soldier!"

Rookie touched the side of his helmet with his free hand and shook his head, he was having an urge to rub his eyes. He would often look for opportunities for a quick nap here and there, but even he wouldn't think of doing it in a situation like this. He would have been a goner if he was alone.

He had a record for working non-stop on reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines or fight for hours on a battlefield before he'd even come close to having physical or mental fatigue. The reason for his current problem was not work, but idleness. With almost nothing to do in a small ship like the Normandy and not allowing himself to have a much needed rest while sitting around for hours was beginning to drive him crazy. And now even closing his eyes for a few seconds was proving to be dangerous. Conversation may be a good distraction, but hardly his favorite to indulge in.

"Chief? Corporal? Come in" came Joker's voice over the radio.

"This is chief Williams", Ashley answered, "Is the ground team okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine", replied the helmsman, "It was just a hit-and-run"

Rookie didn't pay much attention to the rest of the conversation as they made their way towards the Normandy.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The garage was bustling with activity again when the duo arrived. Garrus was aligning the Mako to its usual place while some crewmen shouted directions at him, Wrex stood at his usual place near the crates, watching the proceedings with disinterest while Shepard was sitting on a crate near Chief Williams' station, removing her armor.

"At ease", said Shepard as they saluted.

"You okay, Skipper?" asked Ashley.

"Delta Sierra, we're not doing what we did today ever again", she replied.

"What happened?"

"What you call it when you're having a really crappy day with a lot of bad luck while nothing interesting happens?" asked Shepard grumpily.

"Monday", replied Rookie.

"But, what about the ambush ma'am?" asked Ashley.

"We spent the whole day chasing Pyjaks", replied Shepard snorting, "The ambush was probably the best part of the day, how did the EVA go?"

"One crashed Salarian shuttle and this…" Ashley took out the medallion and handed it to her.

Shepard looked at it thoughtfully and replied, "Alright, submit a full report later, dismissed"

Rookie too took his leave, it was almost time for his shift.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie's only real job other than ground support was dog watch in the CIC. He was standing guard on the right side door which led down the lower deck to the mess hall. He stood on the left side of the door while a crewman, Private Fredricks on the right. Fredricks was a good man, Rookie had known him for quite a while now since he was assigned with him for their shift and as far as he could tell, Fredricks was one of the greener bunch of the Normandy.

"But C'mon! You gotta agree"

And had a habit of getting both of them into trouble whenever one of the senior officers heard them talking. Rookie stayed silent, hoping that it would not happen again..

"I mean, I like all the aliens, they're cool", said Fredricks a little too loudly for his comfort, "You can't deny that they are stealing our jobs!"

Rookie sighed, he never understood the tendency of others to automatically assume him to be a good listener just because of his silence.

"C'mon man, say something!" the private insisted.

Maybe ignoring him for a few more minutes just might work out for him.

"Hey, give me that crap", Fredricks frowned at him, "I'll bet that you didn't have any problem when you spent time talking to Zorah"

_Is there no privacy on this ship?_

Rookie regained his composure and saluted and Lieutenant Alenko passed by them.

The ODST sighed, "We were just talking about work"

"Hey, I'm just saying", said Fredricks smirking, "She's technically a civilian"

Rookie gave him a shrewd look, "For the record, I don't have any xenophilic tendencies, unlike you"

"I already told you", the private hissed defensively, "I'm just going to talk to the consort and nothing else! And I'll bet my ass that she'd be a whole lot better to talk to than you"

"Good for you"

_And me…_

"But back to the subject", said Fredricks, "I still think that the aliens are stealing our jobs!"

Rookie sighed again, "You do know that they're temporary recruitment right?"

"Yeah, I know", the private replied, "But my point is that capturing Saren would've been one of the biggest breaks of my and many of the others' careers and the aliens just took it away"

Now that was something that he didn't give a thought up until now.

"Uh…don't worry, I'm sure that there will be more opportunity for you in the future", he said in an awkward reassuring tone.

"That's easy for you to say", Fredricks scoffed, "You're the special forces guy and just because of that, you're in the ground team"

"That's not the only reason he's in the ground team", came a voice as the door that they were guarding, opened

.

Alenko, who apparently had overheard their exchange, now stood before them.

"Rookie, Chief Williams and I are battle tested marines", he said with a stern expression, "You and the others were fresh off the basic when Captain Anderson handpicked you and you weren't supposed to be included in the ground team without actual field evaluation"

"Yes, sir. But the aliens-"

"Two things", Alenko interrupted, "First, you will call them 'Non-humans' unless you want to sound prejudiced. And second, every non human have proven themselves capable to hold their own in a firefight"

"Sir, I understand", said Fredricks nodding, "But how are we supposed to prove ourselves if the Commander won't even let us?"

"By having patience", replied Alenko, "Look, with the Geth on the loose, we don't know what to expect every time that we enter a system or a seemingly deserted planet. Take today, for example"

"Yes, sir…but…Jenkins", Fredricks bowed his head, grimacing.

Alenko's gaze softened, "I know that Jenkins was your friend, but look what happened to him. We only took him with us because at that time, we thought that it was just a simple pick up mission"

Fredricks began to say something when the Lieutenant raised his hand interrupting him, "Don't let the Commander's appearance fool you, she still blames herself for what happened to your friend, even when everyone told her otherwise"

"And that's why I want to get back at them, make them pay!" the private snapped.

"If you continue to keep revenge on your mind, you won't last long", Rookie spoke up, apparently bored.

"He's right", Alenko agreed, "So, for now, you can either request for a transfer or you can wait till we deal with Saren and his geth, the choice is yours"

Fredricks looked at his feet thoughtfully but didn't reply.

"Think about what I just told you", Alenko turned to Rookie, "Anything that would like to add?"

"Just one thing, sir", Rookie pointed towards Fredricks, "He's the one that started talking during the duty"

"Wha-? Hey!"

The Lieutenant gave a light chuckle, "I'll let it slide for now, but don't let me catch me both of you like that again"

He turned and left for the helm while Fredricks glared daggers at Rookie.

"You jackass!"

"What?" the ODST shrugged, "I'm not cleaning the toilet just because I listened to your bitching".

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Rookie's shift had just ended and he was on his way towards the sleeper pods to finally get some sleep.

"You know what?" said Fredricks who was walking with him, much to his annoyance, "I think I'll hang around"

"Why?" he asked irritably.

"Hey, groundside action or not, at least I'll get to be there when shit hits the fan", replied Fredricks, "Also, I'll get to see if this reaper thing is real or not"

"So…no mutiny?"

The private snorted, "Are you kidding me? I'll get replaced faster than you can say…" he looked past the ODST's shoulders, "Officer on deck!"

Rookie gave him a weird look, "That's a dumb expression"

The private snapped a salute and whispered, "No, really, Officer on deck!"

Rookie quickly turned around and saluted, pretending as if nothing happened.

It turned out to be Shepard, who didn't look quite amused, "Disrespecting the military protocols, are we?"

"Sorry, ma'am", replied Rookie, trying his best to keep a straight face. He was going to kill Fredricks. It may not have been the private's fault, but he was going to kill him anyway.

"We need to talk, in private", said Shepard, looking pointedly at Fredricks.

"Ah, don't mind me ma'am", said Fredricks, clearly not getting the hint to leave, "I'll just sit in the corner"

"Are you off duty, private?" asked Shepard.

"Yes, ma'am"

"Then I have a job for you", the Spectre said neutrally, "…go and get me some elbow grease and a bulkhead remover"

"Ma'am, where do I find those?" asked Fredricks in confusion.

"Ask Lieutenant Moreau, he'll know", replied Shepard.

"Aye Aye, ma'am" the private snapped another salute and left the mess hall.

Rookie cracked a smile as he watched Fredricks leave.

Shepard actually chuckled, "That would keep him off your back for…well, knowing Joker, probably a week or two"

He sighed in relief.

Shepard first led him to take a cup of coffee for both of them and settled in a chair opposite to each other.

"So, Williams' report stated that you almost fell asleep during the EVA operation", Shepard stated, he tone indicating that she wasn't messing around anymore, "You do know what could've happened, right?"

Rookie nodded, wincing and saw the Commander scrutinizing him, her emerald green eyes seemed to be boring into his.

"When was the last time you slept?" she asked.

The ODST checked the time on his Omni-tool and replied, "About twenty eight hours ago"

"So, you never slept since returning from Feros", Shepard noted, raising an eyebrow, "I'm guessing that it's related to what happened there when we first encountered the Thorian creepers"

Rookie shifted uncomfortably in his place, unable to meet her eyes.

"You flashed"

"That was something that caught me off guard", he met her eyes, still a little uncomfortable, "I assure you, it won't happen again"

"Unless you want me to assume that it was because of too many vids", Shepard leaned forward, "I'd like to know more"

Rookie tapped the rim o the mug thoughtfully, still struggling it keep a straight face as he replied, "I've faced something similar in the past, but far worse than what we fought, I…" he met her gaze again and shook his head, "I don't really want to talk about it"

Shepard sighed and took a sip of her coffee, "Listen, I'm a special ops soldier, like you and I know what the others tend to expect from us. They expect us to be the know-it-all in every kind of situation, be able to put aside our emotions during duty, fight like a machine and god knows what else", her expression softened, "But both you and I know that it's easier said than done"

…

"All I'm trying to say is…this conversation is completely off the record", she continued, "I'm not trying to judge you, I'm just trying to figure out your problem and if possible, maybe even help you if I can"

Rookie let out a humorless snort.

"What?" the Spectre asked, slightly cocking her head to the side.

"You're starting to sound like my last squad leader", he replied, eyeing her curiously, "Fine, ask"

"I'm getting a feeling that you have PTSD", stated Shepard.

"Actually, it's Post traumatic vocal disarticulation"

"…You haven't lost you voice, though"

"Mine was not a very serious case", Rookie shrugged, "That's what they told me anyway"

"'They'? You mean that people knew?" the Spectre frowned, "Why didn't they declare you unfit for duty?"

"I was one of those too-valuable-to-lose type", the ODST replied scoffing, "Beside we were running short of battle tested soldiers"

Noting that the ODST didn't take offence to her earlier question, she decided to prod more, "How can you live with it?"

"A little help from my friends"

"You haven't seem to done full recovery"

Rookie shook his head, "I still have nightmares, I still don't like prolonged conversations like this and that's everything in a nutshell"

Shepard nodded and took another sip of her coffee.

"So…you're insane", she asked in a dry tone.

"I prefer 'borderline psychotic' ", The ODST smiled back, "Which is just enough to fit my job requirement"

"As long as you don't go on a friendly killing spree in your sleep, we're all happy"

Rookie chuckled and took a sip of his coffee.

"And enough about the depressing subjects, I don't think either of us need that right now", said Shepard," Besides I don't want to talk about military life right now"

She leaned back comfortably on her chair.

"So, tell me a bit more about yourself"

"No"

Shepard frowned, slightly taken aback by his bluntness, "Now you're just being difficult"

…

"Alright, it's getting late anyway", she sighed, "Go and get some sleep, I don't think that you'll want to ruin your shore leave"

Rookie nodded and quickly emptied his mug and went towards the sleeper pods. Even though he couldn't do anything against the nightmares, it felt a little good to be able to talk about it. Maybe it was about time that he started being so ungrateful to the people that had helped him, especially Williams, Alenko and Shepard. He wasn't sure about revealing anything more about himself than he had done already…but was definitely going to give it more thought.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N:** A few points about this chapter:

Delta Sierra is NAVspeak for Dumb Shit.

Thruster is not cannon and I have no idea how they perform EVA. And no, the whole thing with the EVA was not pointless.

Before you guys troll me, they have speculated that Rookie may have the PTVD which may have happened when he saw his whole unit annihilated in the new Jerusalem, but he then encounters Gage after that that and talks to him. Even Buck says that he doesn't talk much, not that he couldn't speak at all. And Lucy was twelve when she saw her fellow Spartans die, while Rookie is an adult. Childhood trauma is more difficult to overcome than the one in adulthood, it doesn't matter if she was a Spartan.

Now that it's done with, I gotta go prepare for my finals see you guys AFTER MARCH.

Till next time.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **Whelp.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Mass effect or Halo :(

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**Chapter - 17**

**Interlude III**

The Normandy had arrived very late to the Citadel during the night cycle, so most of the crew who worked the most recent shifts decided to rest first in the Alliance barracks where they would get lodging for the duration of the shore leave, with the exception of those who had home anywhere else on the Citadel.

The first thing that Rookie did as soon as he had dropped off his belongings that he brought with him at his quarters in the barracks was heading out into the wards and finding the nearest shop and buying some decent clothes for himself, since walking around in uniform attracted attention and he preferred blending in with the crowd for as long as he intended to just explore the station by himself, that and he had no idea where Shepard and other senior officers were right now. Pressly had sent them a map of areas of the citadel that they were confined to which was a small section of the presidium ring around the embassies and the citadel tower and also a small portion of the upper and the lower wards. They were instructed to stay at these locations for the duration of the shore leave.

The Citadel wasn't such a bad place to spend shore leave after all. It was just because of the last time they had been here that Rookie didn't really had the time to explore and appreciate the beauty of the place with all the running and gunning that they did before. In fact, it was almost ideal except that the majority of the station was filled with alien population, but he didn't let that bother him too much. That, and when he thought about spending vacation in some exotic location far away, this wasn't exactly what he had in mind. But given his current situation, he couldn't do much about it anyway.

Visiting the Embassy lounge was out of the question as he knew that Fredricks and other greenhorns would be hanging around there, so he decided go to the wards, just sit on one of the benches and do some people watching…or rather alien watching.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

Alien watching wasn't as interesting as he had initially thought it would be, all he had heard so far was just small talk amongst the crowds, he had observed various aliens and humans together just hanging about as friends, in idle conversation, some even spending a romantic time together (Something that still disgusted him). He had remembered what Alenko told him about them, that they were just like humans with a few differences in mannerisms, but it was quite hard even now to imagine the alien species as simple pedestrians who don't want to just slaughter or enslave the human race (At least not the majority of them) even now, after spending so much time aboard in the Normandy with the alien squad mates.

Rookie decided to go to the presidium to avoid the crowds for a while, he reached the embassies and sat on one of the benches near the lake. He had spotted a few of the crew members along the way, blending in with the crowds and avoiding them instead of meeting up with them. It was almost sad, he had thought, that he had been spending the shore leave all alone. Had he been back at his 'world' with the guys, he would have probably been caught up in various shenanigans and what not. He had been getting messages from Shepard almost ten minutes after leaving the barracks, but didn't bother reading them. He didn't really had any problems with Shepard, Alenko or Williams, they were nice enough people, but he didn't felt like he would fit in with them. Working as a professional was one thing, but spending downtime and shore leave was completely different and there wasn't much to relate with them. They were different and had completely different experiences in their respective military careers and probably lifestyles too while he couldn't even figure out how his Omni-tool worked. They belonged here, he didn't.

He felt like an outsider even though he had to pretend to be a part of the crew, even when they treated him like it. He didn't even felt any loyalty or any real attachment towards the Alliance, the only reason he had for staying as long as he had was because he owed Shepard and the others for helping him, that and he had no idea what he'd do if he left Alliance. He was proud of what he as and did not like lying about himself whenever someone asked him about his personal background. He had heard that over-thinking was bad for you, but what could one do when they had too much free time to eventually ponder about their lives? What was its purpose and where were they headed? Especially when everything that they ever knew was just gone? Like it never even existed?

He often wondered whether Shepard and the others took his story seriously, because he probably wouldn't if he was in their shoes. He didn't had much time to consult with anyone about finding a way to get back to his world, what with his spur-of-the-moment decision to help out with the Saren situation. He didn't even know who to consult about it, the only person he knew who could probably help him out was Dr. T'soni since she was some kind of expert archeologist, but he did not trust her.

This is some messed up plane of existence.

Rookie was so engrossed in his thought that he didn't realized that he was staring straight at a woman across from his seat the whole time, she stood up and walked away, giving him a disgusted look. Embarrassed, He awkwardly looked around to see if anyone else noticed and decided to get away from the area before he got into any trouble. As he crossed the bridge across the lake back towards the embassies, he saw Captain Anderson waving at him from the balcony of the human embassy, so he made his way towards him.

"Hey, Rookie! Hold up!" a familiar voice, Fredricks' came from behind him, he saw that the private run up to him, out of breath, "Glad I found you, I need your help with something"

"No"

"C'mon! I can't find the elbow grease or the headlight fluid anywhere!"

…

"Everyone just keeps redirecting me", said Fredricks, "So, I was just about to go back to the barracks and contact the higher ups about this thing"

_That's a REALLY bad idea._

"Yeah, definitelydo that"

The private went his way, and so Rookie continued towards the Human embassy.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The door opened for him, he made his way towards Captain Anderson who was still standing near the balcony, facing outside. To his surprise, Shepard was there as well and luckily, Udina wasn't.

"Son, I don't know how they court women in your world but staring at them like that is frowned upon around here"

_Someone please kill me right now._

"Uh…", Rookie cleared his throat, "Sir, did you need something?"

"Nothing much, just wanted to check up on you", replied Anderson, "You don't look too well"

…

"I see, I can't really imagine how you feel about all this", said Anderson, "But you shouldn't waste your downtime over it"

"…Sir, is there any progress?"

"Actually, I was here for the same thing", Shepard spoke up as she walked up to them, "Did you manage to find anything about the artifact, Captain?"

"No, we didn't", Anderson sighed, "And you must understand that we can't make an open inquiry about this or devote much of the resources to it"

"I'm assuming that a simple video clip and our account of the situation isn't evidence enough to pique anybody's interest?" asked Shepard.

"Yes", replied Anderson, "That and there aren't many people out there who we can trust to keep this a secret"

"So, are we out of options?"

"Not yet", Anderson turned towards Rookie, "Corporal, can you leave the artifact with me later? For now, go and enjoy your Shore leave, that's an order"

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"So where were you?" asked Shepard as she and Rookie walked out of the embassy office, "I've been messaging for you for an hour now"

…

"I've could've used your help running some errands"

"Why?"

"It could've involved some shooting and I assumed you were the only one not too busy with anything or with anyone"

"Why?"

"Well, were you?"

…

_Good point._

"Anyway, I'm done with it and Alenko and Williams are waiting for us in the Flux", said Shepard, "You're coming with me"

Rookie didn't object, so they began walking towards the nearest when he spoke up.

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

"In what context?" Shepard smirked.

"I mean, regarding my story"

"Oh", She sighed and turned away from the rapid transit terminal, "Let's just walk"

They walked through the embassies and entered the elevator to the wards access where Shepard spoke up as soon as the doors to the elevators closed.

"Let me tell you something, after hearing your account of the events, Anderson and I looked up everything we possibly could about you. Searching about your armor or weapons manufacturer turned up nothing, the only guns that use bullets are kept in museums and the models don't even match with yours. Face or identity recognition with recent prison and insane asylum escapees from nearby systems didn't return anything either…"

_Wait, what?_

"You don't exist…well, didn't existed in the Alliance database before now. So, the only conclusions that we came to was that either you are here on behalf of some third party who came to infiltrate and sabotage or you're really telling the truth, but that artifact was probably your saving grace. That's why we decided to keep you around until we could confirm your story…and honestly? The things that you've told me couldn't me made up, call it instincts but at least I'm inclined to believe you"

The elevator door opened as they reached the wards access area, they took another elevator that lead to the upper wards.

"So, what are you thinking?" asked Shepard.

"…Thanks"

"For what?"

"For going out of your way to help me so far even after hearing my story which would seem really ridiculous to you", said Rookie giving a small smile.

"Well, if you need to talk about whatever's troubling you, don't hesitate to talk to me later", said Shepard clapping him on the shoulder, "For now, let's just try to enjoy yourself. It was a long day today and I really want to blow off some steam"

"Fine, let's get shit-faced"

"I thought you didn't drink", stated Shepard raising her eyebrows.

"I don't…often"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

"I can't believe that they started without us!" said Shepard frowning.

They finally reached the table the others had taken only to find that they were already half drunk.

"Roooookieeeeee! Liking the new civvies!" said Ashley waving at him with a blissful smile on her face.

Rookie looked down at his clothes, '_These aren't that goo-'_

"Now get me that drink you promised"

_Oh, very subtle._

"We shouldn't drink anymore…Commander, please don't let her dri-", Kaidan suddenly belched, "Excuse me!"

He stumbled towards the men's room bumping into a few patrons along the way.

_Wow._

"Go, help Alenko", Shepard smiled at them, shaking her head, "I'll get the drinks"

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

**A/N: **So, yeah. I don't have any excuse for keeping this on hold other than ALL THOSE SWEET GAMES THAT WERE RELEASED SO QUICKLY IN SO SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME! That and one of my friends made sure that I didn't touch Assassin's creed 3 before I played the rest of the series and if you've played it, then you'd know how long can it take to complete just one on them if you do all the side quests, I was pretty busy.

But all those reviews in my absence and the Citadel DLC was probably what pushed me to finally get into writing again. Also, it's probably really late but since I couldn't get this out any sooner…I'm that weirdo who's okay with the endings, that's all.

I'll probably start working on the next chapter after I finish playing Tomb Raider and FarCry 3. In the meantime, I'll try to reply to every review if I can :D

Till next time.


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